Nitrogen in the Chesapeake Bay: A Retrospective

Nitrogen pollution has been a primary cause of a degraded Chesapeake Bay ecosystem for over a century. Since the Clean Water Act of 1972, Bay monitoring programs have measured the amount of nitrogen coming from human activities and on land (urban, suburban, rural, and industrial) and from natural cycling in the water column. This information is used to evaluate management actions for nutrient reduction. This newsletter summarizes monitoring data and describes nitrogen trends in both the non-tidal and tidal areas of the Chesapeake Bay.

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