IAN 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.
These National Park Service Resource Briefs are the next iteration of Natural Resource Condition Assessments. They analyze and present the condition of important natural resources in 11 National Capital Region National Parks to guide local and regional management of these resources.
These National Park Service Resource Briefs are the next iteration of Natural Resource Condition Assessments. They analyze and present the condition of important natural resources in 11 National Capital Region National Parks to guide local and regional management of these resources.
Published in 2022, the 2021 Severn River Report Card summarizes data collected in the summer of 2021. It was a troubling year for water quality in the Severn River in 2021. The overall grade for the Severn River dropped to a D+ in 2021, largely due to a decline in underwater grasses. This decline offset improvements seen in dissolved oxygen.
Orth RJ, Dennison WC, Wilcox DJ, Batiuk RA, Landry JB, Gurbisz C, Keisman J, Hannam M, Lefcheck JS, Murphy RR, Moore KA, Patrick CJ, Testa JM, Weller DE, Merrittj MF, Hobaugh P ·
Synthesizing large, complex data sets to inform resource managers towards effective environmental stewardship is a universal challenge. In Chesapeake Bay, a well-studied and intensively monitored estuary in North America, the challenge of synthesizing data on water quality and land use as factors related to a key habitat, submerged aquatic vegetation, was tackled by a team of scientists and resource managers operating at multiple levels of governance (state, federal).
In the annual IAN Report Card, IAN staff reflect on accomplishments from 2021. The self-assessment is based on indicators in three categories: social impacts, ecological outcomes, and partner engagement. Overall, IAN received an overall grade of C+ (79%), a moderate score nearly in the good range.
This paper develops a barometer that indexes water quality in the Chesapeake Bay and summarizes quality over spatial regions and temporal periods. The barometer has a basis in risk assessment and hydrology, and is a function of three different metrics of water quality relative to numerical criteria: relative frequency of criterion attainment; magnitude of deviation from a numerical criterion; and duration of criterion attainment.
This report card provides a transparent, timely, and geographically detailed assessment of Chesapeake Bay and its Watershed. Since 2016, UMCES has engaged stakeholders throughout the watershed to transform the report card into an evaluation of the Chesapeake Watershed health. Watershed health includes traditional ecological indicators, but also economic and societal indicators. This is the third year the watershed has been scored, and four new economic indicators have been added.
The first-ever Cuando River Basin Report Card aims to assist in decision making to expand protected lands, increase biodiversity, maintain migration routes, and draw more tourists to the area. Inclusive conservation, which centers conservation actions on the needs of local communities, is at the heart of this approach.
