SAV Salinity Zones
![](https://d18lev1ok5leia.cloudfront.net/chesapeakebay/_750xAUTO_crop_center-center_none/SAV_salinity_zones.jpg)
- Author:
- David Wilcox (VIMS)
- Date Created:
- April 21, 2014
Up until 2013, submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV, also known as bay grasses) acreage totals for the Chesapeake Bay were aggregated into three zones: Upper Bay, Middle Bay and Lower Bay. For 2013, it was decided to report the totals by the four salinity zones found in the Bay: tidal fresh, oligohaline, mesohaline and polyhaline. Since different species of SAV are generally found in waters of a specific range of salinity, tracking changes in SAV abundance by salinity could help track changes in species abundance more easily.