The main objective of this work is to provide resource managers and estuarine scientists with a clearer perspective on a key management question: After three decades of restoration, has progress been made in reducing nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment exports from the Bay watershed?

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Incorporating novel indicators into the Chesapeake Bay Report Card. Make key improvements to the Chesapeake Bay Report Card, which has served since 2006 as the definitive source for ecosystem health status in the Bay and tidal tributaries.

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The Chesapeake Bay Program and the U.S. Geologic Survey are compiling tributary basin summaries for 12 major tributaries or tributary groups in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. These summaries summarize the following information: (1) How tidal water quality changes over time; (2) How factors that drive those changes change over time; and (3) Current state of the science on connecting change in aquatic conditions to its drivers.

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This project is aimed toward better understanding nutrient limitation of phytoplankton in Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries. Leveraging novel statistical approaches and long-term monitoring data sets from the Chesapeake Bay Program Partnership, this project helps understand whether nutrient limitation patterns have changed in response to decades of nutrient reduction efforts.

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Chesapeake Behavior Change helps organizations use Stewardship Index Survey data to create campaigns that will increase the number of residents taking on-the-ground actions to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay. It also serves as a repository for behavior change campaigns. It was developed and is maintained in coordination with the Chesapeake Bay Program's Stewardship Workgroup.

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Accurate quantification of riverine water-quality concentration and flux is challenging because monitoring programs typically collect concentration data at lower frequencies than discharge data. Statistical methods are often used to estimate concentration and flux on days without observations. One recently developed approach is the Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge, and Season (WRTDS), which has been shown to provide among the most accurate estimates compared to other common methods.

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This project is aimed toward better understanding the current status and long-term trends of Chesapeake Bay in terms of its water quality standards attainment.

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Wetlands Work connects agricultural landowners with programs that fund wetland restoration and planners who can guide them through the restoration process. It was developed and is maintained in coordination with the Chesapeake Bay Program's Wetland Workgroup.

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The IAN report card includes three categories of indicators: partnership satisfaction, social impacts and ecological outcomes. For partnership satisfaction, we devised a survey and asked our partners a battery of questions about their satisfaction with the co-production of products, the collaborative process and capacity-building within their organization. For social impacts, we assessed our media reach, our dissemination effectiveness, and our teaching and training.

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University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science has been awarded a grant from Exelon Corporation through the Department of Natural Resources to study the affect that particulates from Conowingo Reservoir have on water quality in regions affected by high flow events. This is a two-year research project that began in October of 2014, the results are highly anticipated and will play a huge roll in future management of the sediment in Conowingo Reservoir.

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