Publications for Chesapeake Bay Water Quality Standards Attainment Indicator

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Adaptive monitoring for change: Record low hypoxia in Chesapeake Bay in 2023 (Page 1)

Adaptive monitoring for change: Record low hypoxia in Chesapeake Bay in 2023

Tango PJ, Zhang Q, Tian R, Murphy RR, Sullivan BM, Mallonee ME, Ghosh D, Goldfischer A, Gootman KS ·
2025

Seasonal hypoxia (dissolved oxygen [DO] levels ≤ 2 mg/l) poses a severe threat to coastal ecosystems globally, including the largest estuary in the United States, the Chesapeake Bay. This V-shaped drowned river valley features shallow flanks, where the deepest waters experience persistently low DO levels typically initiated during the spring and ending in late summer or early autumn. Reports on low DO conditions in the Chesapeake Bay date back over a century.

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Dissolved oxygen criteria attainment in Chesapeake Bay: Where has it improved since 1985?

Zhang Q, Murphy RR, Tian R, Gootman KS, Tango PJ. ·
2024

Many estuaries, including Chesapeake Bay, have suffered from undesirable conditions of algae blooms, poor water clarity, and low dissolved oxygen (DO). To better understand the status and trends of DO criteria attainment deficit (AD), we conducted a comprehensive assessment using monitoring data in the period of 1985–2022 and focused on the comparison of trends among 13 tidal systems.

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Inferring Controls on Dissolved Oxygen Criterion Attainment in the Chesapeake Bay (Page 1)

Inferring controls on dissolved oxygen criterion attainment in the Chesapeake Bay

Langendorf RE, Lyubchich V, Testa JM, Zhang Q ·
2021

Environmental monitoring programs generate multivariate time series for the assessment of ecosystem health. Recent developments in causal inference offer ways to translate these observational data into networks able to explain gains and losses in the trajectories of indicator variables. Here, we present a case study of this approach using surface water dissolved oxygen (DO) criteria attainment across the Chesapeake Bay.

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Chesapeake Bay Dissolved Oxygen Criterion Attainment Deficit: Three Decades of Temporal and Spatial Patterns (Page 1)

Chesapeake Bay dissolved oxygen criterion attainment deficit: Three decades of temporal and spatial patterns

Zhang Q, Tango PJ, Murphy RR, Forsyth MK, Tian R, Keisman J, Trentacoste EM ·
2018

Low dissolved oxygen (DO) conditions are a recurring issue in waters of Chesapeake Bay, with detrimental effects on aquatic living resources. The Chesapeake Bay Program partnership has developed criteria guidance supporting the definition of state water quality standards and associated assessment procedures for DO and other parameters, which provides a binary classification of attainment or impairment.

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Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay's water quality condition has been recovering: Insights from a multimetric indicator assessment of thirty years of tidal monitoring data

Zhang Q, Murphy RR, Tian R, Forsyth MK, Trentacoste EM, Keisman J, Tango PJ ·
2018

To protect the aquatic living resources of Chesapeake Bay, the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership has developed guidance for state water quality standards, which include ambient water quality criteria to protect designated uses (DUs), and associated assessment procedures for dissolved oxygen (DO), water clarity/underwater bay grasses, and chlorophyll-a. For measuring progress toward meeting the respective states' water quality standards…

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