The Nonpoint Source Challenge:
Obstacles and Opportunities for Meeting Nutrient Reduction Goals in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
Obstacles and Opportunities for Meeting Nutrient Reduction Goals in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
Informing Chesapeake Bay Watershed Management by Monitoring Trends in River Nutrient and Sediment Loads
Discovering Connections Across America's Lands and Waters
USGS Chesapeake Accomplishments and Highlights for 2024
Road salt elevates salinity above background levels in freshwater streams and rivers across the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
Wastewater and landscape sources contributing to pesticide contamination
Potomac River watershed
Potomac River watershed
PFAS found in Smallmouth Bass throughout the mid-Atlantic United States
Publications
Discover Chesapeake related science in reports and journal articles authored by USGS scientists
Discover Chesapeake related science in reports and journal articles authored by USGS scientists
Chesapeake Bay Activities
The Chesapeake Bay is our Nation’s largest estuary and provides over $100 billion in annual economic value. The USGS works with Federal, State, local, and academic partners to provide research and monitoring and to communicate results to inform management for the Chesapeake and other important landscapes across the Nation.
Informing Freshwater Management Strategies
Informing Freshwater Management Strategies
Human activities in the Chesapeake Bay watershed can negatively affect the abundance and diversity of macroinvertebrate communities in freshwater streams, which is a core measure of stream health. A major goal of the Chesapeake Bay Program restoration effort is to improve stream health conditions in 10% of streams throughout the watershed.
Applying Multiple Tools to Inform Management of PFAS in the Potomac River Watershed
Applying Multiple Tools to Inform Management of PFAS in the Potomac River Watershed
Managing PFAS in waterways is challenging because there are many potential PFAS sources on the landscape and a large number of individual PFAS which have varying chemical properties and biological effects.
Quick Links
Quick Links
Learn more about USGS science activities in the Bay from our Science Strategy. Additional summaries of the USGS Chesapeake Bay Activities are available in the science topics section.
News
Summer 2025 Newsletter - In The Flow
Summer 2025 Newsletter - In The Flow
Chesapeake Bay Program releases most detailed data on the Chesapeake’s lands and waters to date
Chesapeake Bay Program releases most detailed data on the Chesapeake’s lands and waters to date
EESC in the News: PFAS in Blue Catfish
EESC in the News: PFAS in Blue Catfish
Publications
Over, under, and through: Hydrologic connectivity and the future of coastal landscape salinization Over, under, and through: Hydrologic connectivity and the future of coastal landscape salinization
Seawater intrusion (SWI) affects coastal landscapes worldwide. Here we describe the hydrologic pathways through which SWI occurs - over land via storm surge or tidal flooding, under land via groundwater transport, and through watersheds via natural and artificial surface water channels—and how human modifications to those pathways alter patterns of SWI. We present an approach to advance...
The nonpoint source challenge: Obstacles and opportunities for meeting nutrient reduction goals in the Chesapeake Bay watershed The nonpoint source challenge: Obstacles and opportunities for meeting nutrient reduction goals in the Chesapeake Bay watershed
This document examines the Chesapeake Bay watershed response to nutrient and sediment reduction efforts under the Clean Water Act's total maximum daily load (TMDL) regulation. As the 2025 Chesapeake Bay TMDL deadline approaches, water quality goals remain unmet, primarily because of nonpoint source pollution, the largest remaining source of nutrients and sediment, and the primary...
Multi-model comparison of salt marsh longevity under relative sea-level rise Multi-model comparison of salt marsh longevity under relative sea-level rise
Understanding salt marsh resilience under increasing sea levels can inform for management decisions. We compared temporal projections from various wetland process-based models and a geospatially derived metric (i.e., marsh lifespan) to understand key considerations and uncertainties about salt marsh resilience when using these products for decision-making. The influences of lidar...
Science
Applying Multiple Tools to Inform Management of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in the Potomac River Watershed
The reuse of municipal wastewater provides multiple benefits, including maintaining stream flow, recharging aquifers, and providing public water supply. However, along with the benefits are concerns related to the presence of ‘forever’ chemicals, like per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in wastewater discharge. Managing PFAS in waterways is challenging because there are many potential PFAS...
Artificial Intelligence in the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area
As a data-driven bureau, the USGS Ecosystem Mission Area (EMA) relies on artificial intelligence (AI) to efficiently gather, analyze, and deliver natural resource information to Federal, State, Tribal, academic, and industry partners. USGS EMA scientists are developing and testing innovative uses of AI, including machine learning, deep neural network models, and photogrammetry, to streamline the...
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Biological Threats and Invasive Species Research Program, Climate Adaptation Science Centers, Cooperative Research Units, Ecosystems Land Change Science Program, Environmental Health Program, Land Management Research Program, Species Management Research Program, Chesapeake Bay Activities
Using Global Telemetry to Understand Avian Movement and Migration
USGS researchers are collaborating with partners around the globe to leverage new and existing telemetry data to answer broad scale questions about factors influencing avian movement and migration.