Novel forms of drought are emerging globally, due to climate change, shifting teleconnection patterns, expanding human water use, and a history of human influence on the environment that increases the probability of transformational ecological impacts. These costly ecological impacts cascade to human communities, and understanding this changing drought landscape is one of today’s grand challenges.

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Published in 2020, the 2019 Severn River Report Card summarizes data collected in the summer of 2019. The Severn River earned a B in 2019, in part because of a "banner year" for underwater grasses. The coverage of underwater grasses in the Severn River more than doubled from 2018 to 2019, which is the greatest coverage seen in generations. The report card also provides recommendations for civilian action that can help improve the cleanliness of the river.

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About one-third of the total population of the Great Lakes Basin lives within the Lake Erie Watershed. The lake provides drinking water for 11 million residents and is home to one of the largest freshwater commercial and recreational fisheries in the world. The lake and surrounding areas provide many recreational opportunities, such as camping, kayaking, boating, hiking, birding, and fishing, and are vital to the economy of the region.

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The Evaluating Transdisciplinary Approaches Workshop was convened by the Belmont Forum at the National Science Foundation and facilitated by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science in Alexandria, VA, USA on 26–28 June 2019. Participants of the workshop are part of a growing community of transdisciplinary research supporters and practitioners. Their efforts contribute to our fundamental and applied understanding of complex systems.

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The Chester River, a tributary of Chesapeake Bay, provides critical habitats for numerous living species and oyster aquaculture, but faces increasing anthropogenic stresses due to excessive nutrient loading and hypoxia occurrence.

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Coastal wetlands, such as saltmarshes and mangroves that fringe transitional waters, deliver important ecosystem services that support human development. Coastal … wetlands are complex social-ecological systems that occur at all latitudes, from polar … regions to the tropics. This overview covers wetlands in five continents. The wetlands … are of varying size, catchment size, human population and stages of economic … development.

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This assessment of the Office of the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia established five institutional goals: cohesive staff, credible science, resilient organization, relevance to stakeholders, and effective outreach. Each goal had its own set of indicators.

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Excessive nitrogen (N) inputs to coastal waters can lead to severe eutrophication and different chemical forms of N exhibit varying levels of effectiveness in fueling primary production. Efforts to mitigate N fluxes from coastal watersheds are often guided by models that predict changes in N loads as a function of changes in land use, management practices, and climate. However, relatively little is known on the impacts of such changes on the relative fractions of different N forms.

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This review aims to synthesize the current knowledge of sediment dynamics using insights from long-term research conducted in the watershed draining to the Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the U.S., to inform management actions to restore the estuary and its watershed. The sediment dynamics of the Chesapeake are typical of many impaired watersheds and estuaries around the world, and this synthesis is intended to be relevant and transferable to other sediment-impaired systems.

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This newsletter summarizes outputs from the initial stakeholder workshop to develop the Kwando River Basin Report Card. The workshop took place from 9–11 March in Kasane, Botswana. More than 35 diverse stakeholders from 19 institutions came together at this workshop to conceptualize the river basin, create a shared vision, and discuss indicators for the Kwando River Basin Report Card.

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