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 fourth year the watershed has been scored, and one new ecological indicator has been added.

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The first-ever Potomac River and Watershed Report Card was released in tandem with the 2022 Chesapeake Bay and Watershed Report Card this year. Every year, the Chesapeake Bay and Watershed are graded on a variety of ecological, social, and economic indicators. For 2022, the COAST Card Project took a closer look at the Potomac Watershed, a sub-watershed of the Chesapeake, to help inform decision-making in more focused areas throughout the watershed.

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The Chesapeake Bay Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) and IAN have partnered to synthesize the contents of their latest publication on Rising Watershed and Bay Water Temperatures— Ecological Implications and Management Responses into a report summary outlining key management and research recommendations, the causes and effects of rising water temperatures, and actions for moving forward. This document also builds on the previous STAC Rising Water Temperatures Workshop newsletter.

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This publication serves as a summary of Gordon et al. (2022) and was prepared in collaboration between the USGS and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Integration and Application Network. The summary touches on key findings of the study along with management implications and applications. Please feel free to download the summary here or check it out on the USGS website:

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IAN Staff and the visiting Global Sustainability Scholars hosted a Middle Potomac Listening Session in July 2022 to begin developing the upcoming Potomac Watershed COAST Card.

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Coastal Bays health is defined as the progress of four water quality indicators (nitrogen, phosphorus, chlorophyll a, dissolved oxygen) and two biotic indicators (seagrass, hard clam) toward scientifically derived ecological thresholds or goals. The Coastal Bays had an overall score of C+, a slight improvement from the previous year. Improved total phosphorus scores contributed to the slightly higher overall health of the bays.

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Reporting on the State of the Maryland Coastal Bays is an opportunity to step back and reflect on the status and trends of key environmental features in this iconic region. The theme of this State of the Coastal Bays is building ecological resilience in the region. This focus on resilience is due to the convergence of several factors:

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Every five years, The Maryland Coastal Bays Program publishes its State of the Bays Report, accompanied by the annual Maryland Coastal Bays Report Card. The theme of the 2022 State of the Coastal Bays is building ecological resilience in the region. This focus on resilience is due to the convergence of several factors:

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This publication serves as a summary of Fanelli et al. (2022) and was prepared in collaboration between the USGS and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Integration and Application Network. The summary touches on key findings of the study along with management, monitoring, and reseach applications. Please feel free to download the summary here or check it out on the USGS website:

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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).

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