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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

Colonial wading birds: herons and egrets

No abstract available.
Authors
R.M. Erwin, J. A. Spendelow

Consolidation and erosion of deposited cohesive sediments in Northern Chesapeake Bay, USA

Deposits of dredged cohesive sediments were monitored for changes in volume, bulk characteristics, and susceptibility to resuspension and erosion at disposal sites in Chesapeake Bay. There is a 23-48% volume reduction during the first six months, with correspondingly greater changes over longer time periods. A bulk density increase from 1.15 to 1.3 g/cm3 due to dewatering and compaction accounts f
Authors
J. Halka, W. Panageotou, L. Sanford

Tributary-stream infiltration in Marsh Creek Valley, north-central Pennsylvania

The geohydrology of infiltration from five tributary streams along a 3.6-mile reach of Marsh Creek valley in north-central Pennsylvania was investigated during 1983-85. Marsh Creek valley is underlain by up to 100 feet of stratified drift that overlies Devonian bedrock. The stratified drift is overlain by up to 30 feet of alluvial-fan deposits near the tributary streams. Four of the five tr
Authors
John H. Williams

Hydrogeology and ground-water flow in the carbonate rocks of the Little Lehigh Creek basin, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania

The Little Lehigh Creek basin is underlain mainly by a complex assemblage of highly-deformed Cambrian and Ordovician carbonate rocks. The Leithsville Formation, Allentown Dolomite, Beekmantown Group, and Jacksonburg Limestone act as a single hydrologic unit. Ground water moves through fractures and other secondary openings and generally is under water-table conditions. Median annual ground-water d
Authors
R. A. Sloto, L. D. Cecil, L.A. Senior

Movements and bioenergetics of canvasbacks wintering in the upper Chesapeake Bay

The movement patterns, range areas and energetics of canvasbacks (Aythya valisineria) wintering in the upper Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, were investigated. Eighty-seven juvenile female canvasbacks were radio-tracked between 30 December 1988 and 25 March 1989. Diurnal time and energy budgets were constructed for a time of day-season matrix for canvasbacks using riverine and main bay habitats. Canv
Authors
D.W. Howerter

Geohydrology and simulation of ground-water flow in the carbonate rocks of the Valley Creek basin, eastern Chester County, Pennsylvania

Sixty-eight percent of the 22.6-square-mile Valley Creek basin is underlain by Cambrian and Ordovician limestone and dolomite. Ground water flows through a network of interconnected secondary openings; primary porosity is virtually nonexistent. Some of these openings have been enlarged by solution. Secondary porosity and permeability exhibit great spatial variability, and the yield and specific ca
Authors
R. A. Sloto

Ancient channels of the Susquehanna River beneath Chesapeake Bay and the Delmarva Peninsula

The trunk channels of each system are 2 to 4 km wide and are incised 30 to 50 m into underlying strata; they have irregular longitudinal profiles and very low gradients within the Chesapeake Bay area. The youngest paleochannel is clearly of late Wisconsinan age, about 18 ka, and the intermediate one appears to be late Illinoian in age, or about 150 ka. The age of the oldest is in the range of abou
Authors
Steven M. Colman, J.P. Halka, C. H. Hobbs, R. B. Mixon, D. S. Foster

Light attenuation and submersed macrophyte distribution in the tidal Potomac River and estuary

Changing light availability may be responsible for the discontinuous distribution of submersed aquatic macrophytes in the freshwater tidal Potomac River. During the 1985-1986 growing seasons, light attenuation and chlorophyll a and suspended particulate material concentrations were measured in an unvegetated reach (B) and in two adjacent vegetated reaches (A and C). Light attenuation in reach B (t
Authors
V. Carter, N. B. Rybicki

Geohydrology and water quality in the vicinity of the Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site, Pennsylvania

Wells in the Gettysburg National Military Park, Eisenhower National Historic Site, and Gettysburg Borough supply drinking water to the park staff and, annually, more than 1 million visitors. These water resources are vulnerable to contamination by pollutants from activities in and outside park boundaries. This report describes the hydrogeology and ground-water quality of a 12-square- mile area of
Authors
A.E. Becher

Nitrogen cycling between sediment and the shallow-water column in the transition zone of the Potomac River and Estuary. II. The role of wind-driven resuspension and adsorbed ammonium

During periods of sediment resuspension, desorption of ammonium from sediment solids can be the major pathway for enriching the water column with the ammonium that is produced by bacterial degradation of organic matter in the bottom material. This hyopthesis is based on a three-year study of diffusive flux in the transition zone of the Potomac River at a site 35 m from the Virginia shore where the
Authors
N.S. Simon

Particle-borne radionuclides as tracers for sediment in the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay receives nearly 1 000 000 tonnes of sediment annually from its major tributary, the Susquehanna River. The pattern of deposition of this sediment affects the lifetime of the estuarine resource and the fate of any sediment-borne contaminants. Previous estimates of the extent to which Susquehanna River sediment is transported down the Chesapeake have differed considerably. By use
Authors
J.F. Donoghue, O.P. Bricker, C.R. Olsen