Publications
The USGS publishes peer-reviewed reports and journal articles which are used by Chesapeake Bay Program resource managers and policy makers to make science-based decisions for ecosystem conservation and restoration. Use the Search box below to find publications on selected topics.
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Filter Total Items: 901
Comparing Landsat Dynamic Surface Water Extent to alternative methods of measuring inundation in developing waterbird habitats
This study investigates the applicability of the Landsat Dynamic Surface Water Extent (DSWE) science product for waterbird habitat modeling in multiple non-canopied habitat types. We compare surface water distribution estimates derived from DSWE to two site-specific survey methods: visual surveys and digitized aerial imagery. These site-specific surveys were conducted on Poplar Island, a restorati
Authors
John B. Taylor, Jeffery D. Sullivan, Claire S. Teitelbaum, Jan G. Reese, Diann Prosser
Identifying key stressors driving biological impairment in freshwater streams in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, USA
Biological communities in freshwater streams are often impaired by multiple stressors (e.g., flow or water quality) originating from anthropogenic activities such as urbanization, agriculture, or energy extraction. Restoration efforts in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, USA seek to improve biological conditions in 10% of freshwater tributaries and to protect the biological integrity of existing healt
Authors
Rosemary M. Fanelli, Matthew Joseph Cashman, Aaron J. Porter
Explainable machine learning improves interpretability in the predictive modeling of biological stream conditions in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, USA
Anthropogenic alterations have resulted in widespread degradation of stream conditions. To aid in stream restoration and management, baseline estimates of conditions and improved explanation of factors driving their degradation are needed. We used random forests to model biological conditions using a benthic macroinvertebrate index of biotic integrity for small, non-tidal streams (upstream area ≤2
Authors
Kelly O. Maloney, Claire Buchanan, Rikke Jepsen, Kevin P. Krause, Matthew Joseph Cashman, Benjamin Paul Gressler, John A. Young, Matthias Schmid
Data synthesis for environmental management: A case study of Chesapeake Bay
Synthesizing large, complex data sets to inform resource managers towards effective environmental stewardship is a universal challenge. In Chesapeake Bay, a well-studied and intensively monitored estuary in North America, the challenge of synthesizing data on water quality and land use as factors related to a key habitat, submerged aquatic vegetation, was tackled by a team of scientists and resour
Authors
Robert J. Orth, William C. Dennison, David J. Wilcox, Richard A. Batiuk, Brooke J. Landry, Cassie Gurbisz, Jennifer L. Keisman, Michael Hannam, Jonathan S. Lefcheck, Rebecca R. Murphy, Kenneth A. Moore, Christopher J. Patrick, Jeremy Testa, Donald E. Weller, Melissa Merritt, Paige Hobaugh
Tracking geomorphic changes after suburban development with a high density of green stormwater infrastructure practices in Montgomery County, Maryland
Stream morphology is affected by changes on the surrounding landscape. Understanding the effects of urbanization on stream morphology is a critical factor for land managers to maintain and improve vulnerable stream corridors in urbanizing landscapes. Stormwater practices are used in urban landscapes to manage runoff volumes and peak flows, potentially mitigating alterations to the flow regime that
Authors
Brianna Williams, Kristina G. Hopkins, Marina Metes, Daniel Jones, Stephanie Gordon, William Bradley Hamilton
Bedrock depth influences spatial patterns of summer baseflow, temperature and flow disconnection for mountainous headwater streams
In mountain headwater streams, the quality and resilience of summer cold-water habitat is generally regulated by stream discharge, longitudinal stream channel connectivity and groundwater exchange. These critical hydrologic processes are thought to be influenced by the stream corridor bedrock contact depth (sediment thickness), a parameter often inferred from sparse hillslope borehole information,
Authors
Martin Briggs, Phillip J. Goodling, Zachary Johnson, Karli M. Rogers, Nathaniel Hitt, Jennifer Burlingame Hoyle Fair, Craig D. Snyder
Thirteen novel ideas and underutilized resources to support progress towards a range-wide American eel stock assessment
A robust assessment of the American eel (Anguilla rostrata) stock, required to guide conservation efforts, is challenged by the species’ vast range, high variability in demographic parameters and data inadequacies. Novel ideas and underutilised resources that may assist both analytic assessments and spatially oriented modelling include (1) species and environmental databases; (2) mining of data fr
Authors
David K. Cairns, José Benchetrit, Louis Bernatchez, Virginie Bornarel, John M. Casselman, Martin Castonguay, Anthony Charsley, Malte Dorrow, Hilaire Drouineau, Jens Frankowski, Alexander Haro, Simon Hoyle, D. Craig Knickle, Marten A. Koops, Luke A. Poirier, James T. Thorson, John A. Young, Xinhua Zhu
A water quality barometer for Chesapeake Bay: Assessing spatial and temporal patterns using long-term monitoring data
This paper develops a barometer that indexes water quality in the Chesapeake Bay and summarizes quality over spatial regions and temporal periods. The barometer has a basis in risk assessment and hydrology, and is a function of three different metrics of water quality relative to numerical criteria: relative frequency of criterion attainment; magnitude of deviation from a numerical criterion; and
Authors
A.R. Zahran, Qian Zhang, Peter J. Tango, E.P. Smith
Predicting near-term effects of climate change on nitrogen transport to Chesapeake Bay
Understanding effects of climate change on nitrogen fate and transport in the environment is critical to nutrient management. We used climate projections within a previously calibrated spatially referenced regression (SPARROW) model to predict effects of expected climate change over 1995 through 2025 on total nitrogen fluxes to Chesapeake Bay and in watershed streams. Assuming nitrogen inputs and
Authors
Scott Ator, Gregory E. Schwarz, Andrew Sekellick, Gopal Bhatt
A lesser scaup (Aythya affinis ) naturally infected with Eurasian 2.3.4.4 highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus – Movement ecology and host factors
Despite the recognized role of wild waterfowl in the potential dispersal and transmission of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus, little is known about how infection affects these birds. This lack of information limits our ability to estimate viral spread in the event of an HPAI outbreak, thereby limiting our abilities to estimate and communicate risk. Here we present telemetry data fro
Authors
Diann Prosser, Hannah Schley, Nathan Simmons, Jeffery D. Sullivan, Josh Homyack, Matthew M. Weegman, Glenn H. Olsen, Alicia Berlin, Rebecca L. Poulson, David E. Stallknecht, Christopher K. Williams
Ephemeral stream network extraction from lidar-derived elevation and topographic attributes in urban and forested landscapes
Under-representations of headwater channels in digital stream networks can result in uncertainty in the magnitude of headwater habitat loss, stream burial, and watershed function. Increased availability of high-resolution (<2 m) elevation data makes the delineation of headwater channels more attainable. In this study, elevation data derived from light detection and ranging was used to predict ephe
Authors
Marina Metes, Daniel Jones, Matthew E. Baker, Andrew J. Miller, Dianna M. Hogan, J.V. Loperfido, Kristina G. Hopkins
Maintenance and dissemination of avian-origin influenza A virus within the northern Atlantic Flyway of North America
Wild waterbirds, the natural reservoirs for avian influenza viruses, undergo migratory movements each year, connecting breeding and wintering grounds within broad corridors known as flyways. In a continental or global view, the study of virus movements within and across flyways is important to understanding virus diversity, evolution, and movement. From 2015 to 2017, we sampled waterfowl from bree
Authors
Diann Prosser, Jiani Chen, Christina Ahlstrom, Andrew B. Reeves, Rebecca L. Poulson, Jeffery D. Sullivan, Daniel McAuley, Carl R. Callahan, Peter C. McGowan, Justin Bahl, David E. Stallknecht, Andrew M. Ramey