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IAN Press is committed to producing practical, user-centered communications that foster a better understanding of science and enable readers to pursue new opportunities in research, education, and environmental problem-solving. Our publications synthesize scientific findings using effective science communication techniques.
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- Integration and Application Network
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- Stono and North Edisto Rivers
- Winyah Bay
- South Caucasus
- Kura River basin
- South Pacific
- National Park of American Samoa
- Virginia
- George Washington Memorial Parkway
- Manassas National Battlefield Park
- Prince William Forest Park
- Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
- West Virginia
- Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
agricultural aquatic assessment australia battlefield chesapeake bay chester climate change coastal coastal bays communication conceptual diagrams conference conservation coral creek dissolved oxygen document ecological ecosystem environmental estuarine federation fisheries flood forecast global habitat harbor health impacts implementation indicators loading maps marine menhaden monitoring nitrogen nutrient ocean overall oyster park partners patuxent pollution predicted reef report card restoration river seagrass sediment spatially studies study threats tidal tributary water quality watershed workshop zone
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You are browsing all 16 communication products for the Maryland Coastal Bays: science communication products and report cards project.
2010 Maryland Coastal Bays report card (Report card) 
The aim of this report card is to provide a transparent, timely, and geographically detailed assessment of 2010 Coastal Bays health. Coastal Bays health is defined as the progress of four water quality indicators (TN, TP, Chl a, DO) and two biotic indicators (seagrass, hard clams) toward scientifically derived ecological thresholds or goals. The six indicators are combined into one overarching Coastal Bays Health Index, which is presented as the report card score. Detailed methods are available at www.eco-check.org/reportcard/mcb/2010/. The overall score for the Coastal Bays was a C in 2010. All regions declined in overall health when compared to 2009.
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Maryland Coastal Bays Report Card 2009 (Report card)
The aim of this report card is to provide a transparent, timely, and geographically detailed assessment of 2009 Coastal Bays health. Coastal Bays health is defined as the progressof four water quality indicators (TN, TP, Chl a, DO) and two biotic indicators (seagrass, hard clams) toward scientifically derived ecological thresholds or goals. The six indicators are combined into one overarching Coastal Bays Health Index, which is presented as the report card score. Detailed methods are available at www.eco-check.org/reportcard/mcb/2009/. The overall score for the Coastal Bays was a C+ in 2009. While the northern bays and western tributaries continue to struggle, there are signs of improvement in some areas. However, the southern bays—historically the more pristine of the Coastal Bays—are showing signs of degradation.
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Assessing the Coastal Bays of Maryland and Virginia: A comparison of approaches (Poster)
Poster presented at the 2009 Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation (CERF) conference in Portland, Oregon
Author(s): Thomas JE, Beckert K, Cain C, Carruthers TJB, Dennison WC1, Fisher T, Jesien R, Kumer J, Longstaff BJ, Radcliffe G, Schupp C, Sturgis B, Wazniak C, Wicks EC, Williams MR and Zimmerman C
Two ecosystem health assessment frameworks are being applied to the Coastal Bays region of Maryland and Virginia. Ecosystem health in these bays and their watersheds is at a 'tipping point,' so effective ecosystem health analysis and communication are essential to empower the community; inform monitoring, research, and management; and galvanize environmental change. The report card gives an annually reproducible communication tool with a fast turnaround time, while the habitat-based assessment gives a thorough analysis of habitats, repeatable every several years. These different assessments communicate ecosystem condition to different stakeholders and assist in developing stronger links between monitoring, research, and management.
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Shifting Sands: Environmental and cultural change in Maryland's Coastal Bays (Book)
Author(s): William C. Dennison, Jane E. Thomas, Carol J. Cain, Tim J.B. Carruthers, Matthew R. Hall, Roman V. Jesien, Catherine E. Wazniak, & David E. Wilson
Referring to both the dynamic nature of the barrier islands forming the coastal lagoons of Maryland’s Atlantic Ocean coastline and also the changing cultural landscape, Shifting Sands is a richly illustrated, multi-authored introduction to Assawoman Bay, Isle of Wight Bay, St. Martin River, Sinepuxent Bay, Newport Bay, and Chincoteague Bay. This book leads the reader on a voyage of discovery, providing a user-friendly guide to the history, setting, context, and ecology of these waterways nestled behind Assateague, Fenwick, and Chincoteague Islands. Photographs, conceptual diagrams, maps, and graphs are used to showcase the key features of and major threats to these magnificent bays, watersheds, and islands, with recommendations for how to preserve them for future generations.
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2008 Coastal Bays report card (Report card)
Prepared by EcoCheck and the Integration and Application Network
This report card provides a transparent, timely, and geographically detailed assessment of 2008 Coastal Bays’ health. Prepared annually, the report card rates six reporting regions of the Coastal Bays, using six indicators combined into a single overarching index of health. Health is defined as progress towards established scientifically derived ecological thresholds or goals. The overall health of Coastal Bays was moderate in 2008, obtaining a grade of C+. The report card website enables you to explore the report card in more detail via the regions and indicators.
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Upstream land use affects water quality in Maryland's Coastal Bays (Newsletter)
Coastal lagoon ecosystems across the Delmarva Peninsula are rapidly evolving due to changing land use patterns and shifts towards intensive agriculture, particularly poultry production, and intensive rural-residential development. These changes in the coastal lagoon seascape are especially evident in the northern Coastal Bays watershed of St. Martin River. This region is intensely developed in areas such as the Ocean Pines canal community, is composed of a high percentage of crop agriculture, and contains a number of poultry feeding operations. Water quality degradation continues to be an important issue in the watershed. This newsletter examines how upstream land use affects water quality.
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Fine scale patterns of water quality in three regions of Marylands Coastal Bays: assessing nitrogen source in relation to land use (Report)
Author(s): Beckert K, Fertig BM, O'Neil JM, Carruthers TJB, Wazniak C, Sturgis B, Hall M, Jones AB and Dennison WC
Intensive sampling of the Maryland Coastal Bays in May and July of 2007 served to further assess spatial patterns in nutrients, responses of biological indicators, seasons, land use, and nutrient cycling. Trends indicated degraded water quality, high tubidity, increasing total nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations, high natural isotope abundance (δ15N), and low dissolved oxygen. The abundance of crop agriculture and development of the St. Martin River watershed indicates terrestrial sources of poor water quality, especially in upstream reaches, but no such land use connection has been reported for the region of Johnsons Bay. The difference between these two coastal bays may be their flushing and nutrient cycling abilities, in conjunction with adjacent land use.
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Fine scale patterns of water quality in three regions of Maryland's Coastal Bays: assessing nitrogen source in relation to land use (Presentation)
Author(s): Beckert K, Fertig BM, O'Neil JM, Carruthers TJB, Dennison WC and Fisher T
This presentation by graduate students Ben Fertig and Kris Beckert introduces preliminary results from a detailed assessment of nitrogen sources. Focusing on St.Martin River, Johnson Bay, and Sinepuxent Bay, oyster bioindicators and a suite of water quality measurements suggest that these coastal bays are vulnerable to nitrogen loads from various land uses. Trends indicated degraded water quality, high turbidity, increasing total nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations, high natural isotope abundance (δ15N), and low dissolved oxygen. While terrestrial anthropogenic pressures vary within subwatersheds, water quality in these coastal bays is also influenced by differences in flushing and nutrient cycling abilities.
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Synthesising research, management, and monitoring (Poster)
Using a science communication product to drive the synthesis process
This paper presents the process and results of a three-year collaboration between the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, and the Maryland Coastal Bays Program. The focus of this collaboration was the conception, design, and production of a full-color, design-layout book synthesizing the current knowledge of the science and monitoring in the Coastal Bays, and highlighting management issues and recommendations. The book is aimed at a broad audience, from the interested layperson to technical scientists and resource managers. Through this project, a partnership was developed and a process established that forms the basis for future projects. A key team of editors was established, representing different research and management agencies, to conceive of the general structure of the book. Relevant experts from a wide range of agency and stakeholder groups were invited to author workshops to determine and layout the content for each of 14 chapters. Each layout workshop brought together experts who shared their perspectives of the Maryland Coastal Bays. Their explanations to each other and to the science communicators sparked a dynamic dialog on the basic underlying processes and the best way to illustrate the message (photographs, maps, conceptual diagrams, tables, graphs). Short, active titles were developed-statements summarizing the essence of the contributed point. Six of the chapters focus on the subwatersheds that make up the Coastal Bays. These chapter workshops were held in the watershed and were made up of participants from homeowner and citizen groups and local, state, and federal government agencies. The dynamic nature of the chapter workshop series resulted in the addition of a new chapter (Management of the Coastal Bays), and the combining of two previously separate chapters (Nutrient Budgets and Water Quality). The Science Communicator role included pursuing, compiling and communicating appropriate text and visual elements, including editing the contributed text to space requirements and for consistency, and creating new visual elements (e.g., conceptual diagrams, photographs, maps). Different techniques were used to determine the most effective communication. Development of a common base map for presenting GIS-based data and maintaining consistency of presentation and spelling of place names, color swatches, and fonts facilitated communication and interpretation of the data.
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Biological indicators enhance water quality monitoring in Maryland's Coastal Bays (Newsletter)
March 2007
Nutrient point sources such as wastewater treatment plants and non-point sources including agricultural runoff degrade the water quality of Maryland's Coastal Bays through excessive nutrient loading. Identifying specific sources is difficult due to their variety and mixture. Biological indicators can identify nitrogen sources, integrate nitrogen from these sources over time, and detect biologically important nutrients. Mapping identified sources can provide targets for nutrient reduction management actions, monitor management effectiveness, and evaluate the need for increased efforts. This newsletter summarizes data from the 2004 and 2006 water quality surveys of Maryland's Coastal Bays, incorporating the macroalgae Gracilaria sp. and the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica as bioindicators.
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"Writing crystallizes thought and thought produces action." Paul J. Meyer
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A goal of IAN Press is to empower scientists to directly communicate their ideas and concepts. Publications from IAN Press are designed to transform the uninterested to interested; the interested to involved and the involved to engaged.
IAN Press products are designed to be examples of good science communication principles, and the hope is that others will employ these principles so that scientific understanding can be disseminated widely as possible. The production of IAN Press communication publications involves experimentation with communication techniques and, as such, provides various ideas for science communication that can be emulated.
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The conclusions and recommendations presented in IAN Press publications are crafted to empower actions, plant seeds of ideas and provide justification for people to take appropriate action to find solutions to environmental problems. The conclusions are made as explicit as possible by employing active titles and featuring them prominently (e.g., front section of books or back cover of newsletters).
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Science Communicators are the key element in the production of IAN Press documents. They design the layout of the document, obtain and edit the visual elements, designate the amount and style of text, and orchestrate the review and editing process. IAN Press documents are produced using a 'storyboard' approach, in which the central message(s) are identified and various visual elements selected to support the central message(s). This is in contrast to the more traditional method of writing text and adding in visuals subsequently. In video and film production, storyboards are used and the producer is key to assembling the visual elements. Science Communicators serve in an equivalent role in terms of assembling all the pieces that go into the publication.
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With the growing popularity of electronic media, the carbon footprint involved in producing and distributing paper products, and the ability to provide infinite resources via the web, it could be argued that IAN Press should disseminate entirely via electronic means. While IAN Press provides downloadable, web accessible materials, IAN Press continues to produces written products for the following reasons:
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- Since various IAN Press products are intended to inform a broad community from policy makers to the general public, the weight of scientific support that can be marshaled can be a factor in empowering people to action. In order to make an impact, the difference between hundreds of web pages and hundreds of printed pages is one reason to provide print versions of IAN products. In addition, internet access is not equally applied globally or socially, and in some societies and sectors of society, a written product provides a more accessible source, particularly through libraries and schools.
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- "The product drives the collaborative process"; in that the science communication product forces an intensely collaborative process of obtaining and refining visual elements, drafting and editing text, and experimenting with layout and design. While this collaborative process can be conducted with the production of web materials, print deadlines are a good way to insure timely delivery. In addition, to obtain buy-in from many scientists whose training and experience are in producing printed papers and books, printed copies are often necessary.