This report card provides a transparent, timely, and geographically detailed assessment of Chesapeake Bay. In 2016, the report card includes five water quality indicators and two biotic indicators. In 2016, the overall grade for Chesapeake Bay is a 54%, a C. This means the Bay is in moderate health. Long term trends of each reporting region health and a fisheries index are also presented. For further details, visit the Report Card Website.

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The Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative (CMC), as part of the Indicator Effectiveness Matrix objective, produced 12 factsheets describing 14 tidal water quality indicators. These indicators are part of the CMC's tidal water quality Quality Assurance Project Plan and Method Manuals. The factsheets are intended for nontraditional and volunteer monitoring groups to include as part of their water quality monitoring programs as education materials for their volunteers.

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The aim of this report card was to complete IAN's first annual report. IAN staff reflected back on accomplishments from 2015 and developed indicators in 3 categories: social impacts, ecological outcomes, and partnership satisfaction. IAN received an overall grade of a B+.

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The influence of sea level rise and warming on circulation and water quality of the Chesapeake Bay under projected climate conditions in 2050 were estimated by computer simulation. Four estuarine circulation scenarios in the estuary were run using the same watershed load in 1991-2000 period. They are, 1) the Base Scenario, which represents the current climate condition, 2) a Sea Level Rise Scenario, 3) a Warming Scenario, and 4) a combined Sea Level Rise and Warming Scenario.

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Interactions among global change stressors and their effects at large scales are often proposed, but seldom evaluated. This situation is primarily due to lack of comprehensive, sufficiently long-term, and spatially extensive datasets. Seagrasses, which provide nursery habitat, improve water quality, and constitute a globally important carbon sink, are among the most vulnerable habitats on the planet.

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This report card provides a transparent, timely, and geographically detailed assessment of Chesapeake Bay. In 2015, the report card includes five water quality indicators and two biotic indicators. In 2015, the overall grade for Chesapeake Bay is a 53%, a C. This means the Bay is in moderate health. Long term trends of each reporting region health and a fisheries index are also presented. For further details, visit the Report Card website.

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A coupled estuarine hydrodynamic model and water quality model were used to analyze differences in destratification and anoxia/hypoxia reduction by wind directions in the north-south oriented Chesapeake estuary, USA. The predominant cross-channel bathymetry in the Bay's anoxic center is asymmetric with a steeper and narrower shoal on the eastern shore than on the western shore, which modifies wind-induced circulation differently for two opposite wind directions.

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Ecological restoration of the Chesapeake through the Chesapeake Bay total maximum daily load (TMDL) requires the reduction of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment loads in the Chesapeake watershed because of the tidal water quality impairments and damage to living resources they cause. Within the Chesapeake watershed, the Conowingo Reservoir has been filling in with sediment for almost a century and is now in a state of near-full capacity called dynamic equilibrium.

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Reduction of suspended sediment (SS), total phosphorus (TP), and total nitrogen is an important focus for Chesapeake Bay watershed management. The Susquehanna River, the bay’s largest tributary, has drawn attention because SS loads from behind Conowingo Dam (near the river’s mouth) have been rising dramatically. To better understand these changes, we evaluated histories of concentration and loading (1986−2013) using data from sites above and below Conowingo Reservoir.

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This poster outlines the project objectives and goals, three areas of focus, and requests input from nontraditional monitoring groups.

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