Fish, Streams, and Water Quality
Fish, Streams, and Water Quality
Enhanced Understanding of Factors Affecting Stream Condition Can Improve Restoration Outcomes
The Chesapeake Bay watershed supports important recreational and commercial fisheries, but many are declining due to poor water quality, loss of quality habitat and increased invasive species. The USGS science activities are improving the understanding of how restoration and conservation efforts, along with land-use and climate change, are affecting conditions for fish, wildlife, and people.
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The Role of Storms on Bank Erosion Rates and Sediment Transport in Urban Areas
Sediment is a major pollutant degrading aquatic ecosystems in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The USGS is conducting studies to determine the relative importance of streambank erosion to other sediment sources, such as upland erosion, in both agricultural and urban areas. The information is necessary so resource managers can focus on the types, and locations, of practices that will be most effective...
Conowingo Dam Above 90 Percent Capacity For Sediment Storage
The Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River is at about 92 percent capacity for sediment storage according to new U.S. Geological Survey research.
Chesapeake Bay ‘dead zone’ to vary from average to slightly smaller
Hypoxic zone size affected by low river flow and nutrient loading Scientists expect that this year’s mid-summer Chesapeake Bay hypoxic low-oxygen zone or “dead zone” – an area of low to no oxygen that can kill fish and aquatic life – will be approximately 1.58 cubic miles, about the volume of 2.3 million Olympic-size swimming pools. This is close to the long-term average as measured since 1950.
USGS contributes Toward Assessment of Bay's Health and Restoration
The federal agencies leading the watershed-wide effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay have released a progress report highlighting work completed in the 2015 fiscal year.
Streamflow in the Watershed and Entering the Chesapeake Bay
The health of the Chesapeake Bay, and streams in the watershed, are affected by changes in surface-water flows. Runoff from storms carries pollutants, such as nutrients, sediments, and toxic contaminants, into streams throughout the 64,000 square-mile watershed, which drain to the Bay. The changes of stream flow, and associated pollutant loads, influence habitat conditions for fisheries and safe...
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Science Summary—Vegetation traps nutrients and sediment in the flood plain of an urban stream in the Chesapeake Bay watershed
Urbanization in the Chesapeake Bay watershed has increased stream discharge, the frequency of flood-plain inundation, and the transport of nutrients (such as nitrogen and phosphorus) and sediment to streams and, ultimately, to the bay. Understanding the effects of the abundance, composition, and location of vegetation on flood-plain functions such as nutrient cycling and sediment trapping can aid...
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Science Summary—New digital map documents surficial-aquifer thickness in the Delmarva Peninsula, Maryland and Delaware: Helping to understand the role of groundwater in delivering nitrogen to Chesapeake Bay
Nitrate, the major source of nitrogen in streams of the Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay and the wider Delmarva Peninsula, is transported primarily in groundwater through the unconfined surficial aquifer. Understanding the subsurface processes that affect nitrate transport in this area has been hampered by a lack of regional information on the thickness of this aquifer.
Hear a Presentation of nutrient and sediment trends in the Bay watershed
The goal of the IAN seminar series is to provide concise, thought-provoking ideas relating to Chesapeake Bay science and management.
Nontidal Water Quality Loads and Trends information
This web site is dedicated to providing water-quality load and trend results for the nontidal rivers of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Temperature changes affecting brook trout populations
By the Numbers: 23 The maximum temperature, in degrees Celsius, that brook trout can tolerate.
USGS study: Groundwater delaying water-quality improvements on the Delmarva Peninsula and Chesapeake Bay
New research by the U.S. Geological Survey conducted on the Delmarva Peninsula, which forms the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, indicates it may take several decades for many water-quality management practices aimed at reducing nitrogen input to the Bay to achieve their full benefit due to the influence of groundwater.
Summary of Nutrient and Sediment Loads and Trends in the Cheseapeake Watershed
Changes in nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended-sediment loads in rivers across the Chesapeake Bay watershed have been calculated using monitoring data from the Chesapeake Bay Nontidal Water-Quality Monitoring Network (NTN). These results are used to help assess efforts to decrease nutrient and sediment loads being delivered to the bay. Additional information for each monitoring station is...