Publications

Available in digital format and hardcopy. Phytoplankton standing stocks, production, and species composition are potentially influenced by both the supply of nutrients to the bottom of the food web and removal by suspension feeders higher in the food web. Similarly, suspended sediment concentrations are determined by both their loading rates and their removal or settlement from the water column. Most management activities to date in the Chesapeake Bay watershed have addressed the supply end of these relationships by attempting to reduce nutrient and sediment loading to waters within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. However, to predict the relationship between nutrient or sediment loading and water quality, it is also important to understand and predict the potential top-down effect of suspension feeders such as menhaden, zooplankton, bivalves, and other benthic invertebrates on phytoplankton and suspended sediment. The current Chesapeake Bay agreement includes the commitment: By 2004 assess the effects of different population levels of filter feeders such as menhaden, oysters, and clams on Bay water quality and habitat. This workshop, sponsored by the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC), was a response to this commitment. The workshop report summarizes discussions and outlines steps recommended to meet the filter feeder commitment.

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This work contains the following themes as they relate to the Chesapeake Bay: Watersheds

The phosphorus detergent ban was implemented in the Bay signatory jurisdictions in the mid to late eighties. After the ban's implementation, it became clear that the ban resulted in a significant reduction of discharge in phosphorus from wastewater treatment plants, the ban did not cost the consumer money, and the ban often resulted in O & M cost savings for the wastewater treatment plants. Phosphorus bans limit, to trace amounts, the amount of phosphorus that can be used in detergents and other cleaning products. The P ban resulted watershed wide in a reduction of influent P concentrations of 25-30% to wastewater treatment plants. Phosphorus loads to the bay declined by 6 million pounds per year between 1985-1996.

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This report is a review and assessment of the existing literature on the following topics: distribution of sources and atmospheric concentrations and deposition of ammonia and watershed cycling of NHx.

Changes in Sediment and Nutrient Storage in Three Reservoirs in the Lower Susquehanna River Basin and Implications for the Chesapeake Bay.

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The Chesapeake Bay Environmental Model Package (CBEMP) was used to assess the environmental benefits of oyster restoration in Chesapeake Bay. The CBEMP consists of a coupled system of models including a three-dimensional hydrodynamic model, a three-dimensional eutrophication model and a sediment diagenesis model

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This is a report on Chesapeake Bay Wetlands Research Recommendations and Program Descriptions.

The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) hosted a workshop in Annapolis, Maryland on February 24-25, 2003, at which sediment experts shared information related to sediment best management practices (BMPs). The information presented on selected BMPs has been summarized in this document, and is intended to assist the CBPs Sediment Workgroup (SedWG) and others as they move to the next generation of sediment controls and other practices to improve water clarity in riverine, tidal and near shore areas. In order to provide a thorough summary of each BMP to the workgroup, experts from within the CBP community have contributed to the presenters information. Each final BMP summary has received the approval of the expert who presented the information at the workshop.

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The Chesapeake 2000 agreement has been guiding Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia, the Chesapeake Bay Commission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in their combined efforts to restore and protect the Chesapeake Bay. It defined the goal to achieve and maintain the water quality necessary to support the aquatic living resources of the Bay and its tributaries and to protect human health. Subsequently, Delaware, New York and West Virginia signed a Memorandum of Understanding committing to implement the Water Quality Protection and Restoration section of the agreement.

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Phosphorus plays a major role in nonpoint source pollution. It has become evident that agriculture is experiencing over-application of phosphorus, which has resulted in phosphorus enriched soils in certain locations. The Agricultural Nutrient Reduction Workgroup of the Chesapeake Bay Program's Nutrients Subcommittee held a one-day conference on Coordinating Phosphorus Based Nutrient Management Policies in the Chesapeake Bay Region.