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April 26, 2013

Celebrating 100 Years of Industrial Nitrogen Fixation

People are part of a hybrid socio-environmental ecosystem. The debate over whether people should start geoengineering the atmosphere in order to prevent the worst effects of global warming ignores one essential fact – we already are geoengineering the atmosphere. Geoengineering is the deliberate effort to manipulate processes that control conditions in the atmosphere on a [...]

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April 24, 2013

The Conowingo Debate: The role of the dam in Chesapeake Bay restoration

The Nanticoke Watershed Alliance hosted a debate in Cambridge, Maryland regarding the Conowingo Dam, which is the southernmost dam in the Susquehanna River, described in the IAN publication ‘Responding to major storm impacts: Ecological impacts of Hurricane Sandy on Chesapeake and Delmarva Coastal Bays‘. The debate was held in the Dorchester Public Library on April [...]

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April 19, 2013

Midshore Riverkeeper Conservancy report card launch

On April 13, I was a speaker at the report card launch of the Choptank and Miles-Wye Rivers, sponsored by the Midshore Riverkeeper Conservancy in Easton, Maryland. The launch was held in the beautiful Talbot County Historical Society auditorium. Tim Junkin, the Executive Director of Midshore Riverkeeper Conservancy, was the Master of Ceremonies. The event [...]

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April 17, 2013

Everything Down the Drain – Why?

Is it time to rethink our 19th century approach to dealing with human waste? The discovery of the cause of a cholera epidemic in London, in the mid 19th century, unleashed an international movement that improved sanitation in cities, and also altered the relationship between people and the environment. The result has been an increase [...]

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April 8, 2013

What is the role of science in managing fisheries?

If we let it, science can inform many of our decisions in terms of resource management. According to Dr. Ed Houde of Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, science should inform policy, determining whether or not we should fish a population and under what guidelines. That policy then creates management, the rules and regulations set in place, and [...]

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March 22, 2013

Change of science and management in ecosystems along size gradient

How does ecosystem size affect different environmental management actions? To some extent, a difference in the system scale means variety in the environmental status, research directions, public attention, and management efforts. Therefore, the way of approaching certain management objectives varies based on different size scales. In this blog, we compare five cases along an increasing [...]

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March 20, 2013

Better ways to look at what we’re doing to Chesapeake Bay?

New ways of looking at data promise to give a clearer picture of the effects of restoration in the ecosystem. People have worked hard to bring the Chesapeake Bay back to health. Yet, why is it so difficult to see the results? The IAN program’s Chesapeake Bay Report Card for 2011 gives the bay a [...]

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March 6, 2013

Testimony to the Maryland General Assembly in support of compulsory soil phosphorus testing by farmers

Yesterday, I provided testimony to the Maryland General Assembly in support of a bill that would require Maryland farmers to conduct soil testing for phosphorus levels and to report their findings. The bill was sponsored by Senator Pinsky and my testimony was to the Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs committee, chaired by Senator Joan Carter [...]

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February 21, 2013

Resilience of Coastal Communities Depends on Maintaining Social Infrastructure

Hurricane Sandy was a wake-up call. More and more, people are asking, “What can be done to sustain coastal communities in the face of climate change and accelerated sea level rise?” The story of Holland Island, a once-thriving fishing community, reveals the importance of maintaining social infrastructure to sustain communities. Coastal communities must be resilient [...]

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February 18, 2013

The Chesapeake Bay and the Changing Times: Beyond Science and Management

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States, defined by a wide range of ecological and physical features. It supports a diverse and dynamic ecosystem which displays not only remarkable evolutionary traits but also a reflection of human history. The Chesapeake Bay and its watershed, once populated with submerse aquatic vegetation (SAV) [...]

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