This report card provides a transparent, timely, and geographically detailed assessment of 2010 Chesapeake Bay health. The overall health of Chesapeake Bay, assessed using water quality and biotic indicators, declined slightly in 2010. The overall grade decreased from a C in 2009 to C- in 2010. Only two reporting regions (James River and York River) had improved grades in 2010, three were unchanged, and nine declined.

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This report card provides a transparent, timely, and geographically detailed assessment of 2009 Chesapeake Bay habitat health. The overall health of Chesapeake Bay, assessed using water quality and biotic indicators, was the best it has been since 2002. The overall grade improved from C- in 2008 to C in 2009. Eight reporting regions had improved grades in 2009, four were unchanged, and two had slightly worse grades.

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For many studies of urbanization, particularly those covering broad spatial extents and thus requiring the perspective afforded by satellite remote sensing, the longest time series of impervious surface area (ISA) initiate with the availability of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data in the mid 1980s.

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This report card provides a transparent, timely, and geographically detailed annual assessment of 2008 Chesapeake Bay habitat health. This is the third year that the report card has been released. This report card rates 15 reporting regions of the Bay using six indicators that are combined into a single overarching index of habitat health. The overall health of Chesapeake Bay was poor in 2008, obtaining a grade of C-.

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The relevance of the boundary concept to ecological processes has been recently questioned. Humans in the post-industrial era have created novel lateral transport fluxes that have not been sufficiently considered in watershed studies. We describe patterns of land-use change within the Potomac River basin and demonstrate how these changes have blurred traditional ecosystem boundaries by increasing the movement of people, materials, and energy into and within the basin.

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This report card provides a transparent, timely, and geographically detailed annual assessment of 2007 Chesapeake Bay habitat health. This is the second year that the report card has been released. This report card rates 15 reporting regions of the Bay using six indicators that are combined into a single overarching index of habitat health. Habitat health is defined as progress of the six indicators towards established scientifically derived ecological thresholds or goals.

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This report provides an assessment of eutrophic conditions for 141 U.S. estuaries. The report was based on data and information provided by scientists and experts from around the country. Results from the assessment show that two-thirds of the estuaries evaluated exhibited moderate to high levels of eutrophication. Report production was a collaborative effort between Suzanne Bricker (NOAA NCCOS), EcoCheck (NOAA-UMCES Partnership) and IAN. More information is available from the NEEA website.

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This report card provides a transparent, timely, and geographically detailed annual assessment of 2006 Chesapeake Bay habitat health. A report card will be released each year, in early to mid April, providing an assessment of the previous year’s habitat health. 2006 is the first year that the report card has been released. This report card rates 15 reporting regions of the Bay using six indicators that are combined into a single overarching index of habitat health.

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