Factors Affecting Water Quality
Factors Affecting Water Quality
As the States implement practices to reduce nutrient and sediment to improve water quality, they want to understand the success of their efforts. The USGS conducts studies on the relation among land change, management practices, and changes in nutrients and sediment. The findings are used to help assess progress toward the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) water-quality goal and make needed adjustments
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USGS and Partner Efforts to Monitor High River Flow During Summer, 2018 and Potential Effects of Hurricane Florence on the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
Prepared by Scott Phillips and Peter Tango, USGS and Chesapeake Scientific, Technical Analysis, and Reporting (STAR) team, September 12, 2018
Videos Highlighting USGS Chesapeake Bay Activities
A list of Chesapeake Bay Program videos highlighting USGS Chesapeake Bay Activities.
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.
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.
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.
Science Summary—Sediment and Nutrient Trapping in the Flood Plain of Difficult Run, Virginia, and Implications for the Restoration of Chesapeake Bay
As the largest and most productive estuary in North America, Chesapeake Bay is a vital ecological and economic resource. The bay and its tributaries have been degraded in recent decades, however, by excessive inputs of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and sediment, causing poor water-quality conditions for fish and wildlife. Nitrogen and phosphorus cause algae blooms, fish kills, and poor water...
Identify the sources and effects of toxic and endocrine-disrupting chemicals on fish and wildlife
Fish kills, skin lesions, and fish consumption advisories have raised concerns about the health of fish across the watershed. The USGS is working to identify the multiple factors that affect fisheries including toxic contaminants, disease, pathogens, and poor habitat conditions.
USGS leads STAC workshop on lag times and water-quality response in the Chesapeake Bay watershed
A STAC-sponsored workshop entitled, ―Lag-times in the Watershed and Their Influence on Chesapeake Bay Restoration‖ was held on October 16-17, 2012 at the Sheraton Hotel in Annapolis, Maryland. The workshop was attended by 48 invited participants, including 9 presenters. The workshop defined ―Lag-times‖ as the time elapsed between installation or adoption of point or nonpoint source (NPS) control...