## Breadcrumb

-  Chesapeake Bay Activities 
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#           USGS Chesapeake Bay Highlights for 2019      

  Completed

      By Chesapeake Bay Activities      March 10, 2020    

            -              Overview           

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) works with Federal, State, and academic science partners to conduct monitoring and research in the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem, the Nation’s largest estuary, and other critical ecosystems across the country. The USGS interacts thorough the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) to apply science-based decision making for restoration and conservation efforts.

The CBP consists of the Federal Government, six states, and the District of Columbia, to make progress toward achieving the goals in the Chesapeake Watershed Agreement (2014-25). The goals focus on restoring and conserving recreational fish, waterbird species, and their habitats, as well as the lands important for the 18 million residents of the watershed.

USGS Chesapeake studies are organized around four science themes:
                                - Theme 1: Develop an integrated understanding of the factors affecting stream health, fish habitat, and aquatic conditions.
                                - Theme 2: Assess the risks to coastal habitat and migratory waterbirds.
                                - Theme 3: Characterize land use to assess the vulnerability and resiliency of habitats and healthy watersheds. 
                                - Theme 4: Integrate science and inform decision making. 

USGS Chesapeake studies are supported by six Mission Areas (Ecosystems, Environmental Health, Water, Land Resources, Core Science Systems, and Hazards), collectively providing $12.85 million in 2019. Monitoring and projects are carried out by multiple USGS Science Centers.

 

### Selected USGS Chesapeake Highlights for 2019

→ **Stream Health:**Predicting biological conditions in streams; monitoring the trapping of nutrients and sediment in floodplains.→ **Fish Habitat**: Citizen science for brook trout; thermal effects on brook trout; movement of smallmouth bass; Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) workshop on fish health and toxic contaminants; screening tool for toxic contaminants.→ **Aquatic Conditions (River Flow):** Examining the effects of record freshwater flow to the bay in 2019; extreme floods in eastern North America during the past two millennia.→ **Aquatic Conditions (Nutrients and sediment): **Explaining changes in nutrient and sediment conditions in rivers across the watershed**;**controls on patterns of orthophosphate in tributaries to Chesapeake Bay; phosphorus and the Chesapeake Bay; emerging concerns for agriculture, effects of stormwater practices in suburban developments.→ **Coastal Habitats and Water Birds**: STAC water-clarity report; assessing beach and island habitat loss; invasive submerged aquatic grasses.→ **Watershed Vulnerability and Resiliency:**Ecosystem services; watershed dashboard; enhanced land-elevation data.  

 

### Stream Health

**Predicting biological conditions for small headwater streams in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.**

A primary goal for Chesapeake Bay watershed restoration is to improve stream health and function in 10 percent of stream miles by 2025. Biological condition is measured with the Chesapeake Bay Basin-wide Index of Biotic Integrity (Chessie BIBI), which is based on monitoring of stream macroinvertebrates. The USGS worked with partners to develop a model to predict biological condition in all unsurveyed small streams in a 1:24,000-scale catchment layer. The results were used to update the Chesapeake BIBI ratings so they can be used to more accurately assess baseline conditions and progress over time. 

 

**Understanding how floodplains trap nutrients and sediment.**

The USGS released several publications to provide better understanding of the trapping of nutrients and sediment in the stream floodplain before they reach the Chesapeake Bay and tidal waters. One study examined controls on the spatial variability of the denitrification potential of floodplains, while another addressed the trapping and release of nutrients and sediment after floodplain reconnection along the Pocomoke River in Maryland.

 

View Media Details

### Fish Habitat and Health

**Citizens help with brook trout monitoring.**

Project eTrout led by the USGS, explored the use of crowdsourcing and virtual reality to estimate the abundance of brook trout in headwater streams of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Project eTrout engages students, anglers, and citizen scientists of all ages in fish-ecology and climate-change research.

 

**Laboratory studies help determine reactions of brook trout to thermal changes.**

Laboratory studies conducted by the USGS showed that brook trout foraging generally declined with increasing stream temperatures, and fish increased thermal refuge use, with a steeper decline in forage patch occupancy observed in larger fish. These findings indicate that larger individuals may be more vulnerable to increasing stream temperatures. This paper was featured in the *Journal of Fish Biology*.

View Media Details

**Movement dynamics of smallmouth bass in a large river‐tributary system.**

A tagging study by USGS, conducted by cooperators and USGS, revealed that smallmouth bass in the Susquehanna River moved large distances annually and had three peak movement periods—prespawn, post‐spawn, and overwintering. Movement into and out of tributaries was common, but the movement between mainstem river and tributary habitats varied among tagging locations and season. In addition, connectivity between the river mainstem and the tributary appears to be an important factor for smallmouth bass during key life-history events.

 

**USGS leads workshop on toxic contaminants in urban and agricultural settings.**

The CBP Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC), under the leadership of the USGS, brought together experts from across the country to consider innovative ways to reduce contaminants in urban and agricultural settings in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Participants examined contaminants that affect fish health and the risk to humans who consume them, as well as the effectiveness of certain best management practices to reduce contaminants of concern in both types of land-use settings.

View Media Details

 

**Screening tool to understand exposure to contaminants from incidental wastewater reuse.**

The USGS created a screening tool to understand human and wildlife exposure to toxicants and pathogens associated with the incidental reuse of treated wastewater in the Shenandoah River watershed. The tool can be applied to predict the likelihood of the presence of contaminants from upstream wastewater discharges at downstream locations, including surface-water intakes at drinking-water facilities.

 

### Aquatic Conditions: River Flow to the Bay

**Record high river flows into the Chesapeake Bay during 2019.**

View Media Details

Freshwater flow into Chesapeake Bay during water year (WY) 2019 was the highest on record. The USGS monitors freshwater flow and provides results for each water year, which follows the natural hydrologic cycle from October through the following September. The annual average freshwater flow into the Chesapeake Bay during WY 2019 was 130,750 cubic feet per second (ft3/s), the highest annual flow since 1937, the first year for which data are available. The previous record of 121,125 ft3/s was set in WY 1972, which was influenced by Hurricane Agnes. The record flow washed large amounts of contaminants into Chesapeake Bay, affected dissolved-oxygen concentrations, and degraded habitat conditions for oysters, crabs, and finfish.

 

**“The mighty Susquehanna”—Extreme floods in eastern North America during the past two millennia.**

The USGS developed a history of high‐flow events on the Susquehanna River during the past 2000 years from sediment cores recovered from the Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis, Maryland. Large flood events were identified by examining coarse‐grained sediments deposited by Hurricane Agnes in 1972 and the Great Flood of 1936, as well as during three intervals that predate instrumental flood records (~1800–1500, 1300–1100, and 400–0 C.E.). Comparison of other proxy data from the same core site indicates that prehistoric flooding on the Susquehanna River often accompanied cooler‐than‐usual winter/spring temperatures near Chesapeake Bay—typical of negative phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation and conditions thought to foster hurricane landfalls along the East Coast.

 

### Aquatic Conditions: Nutrients and Sediment

**Explaining nitrogen and phosphorus trends in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.**

Understanding trends in stream chemistry is critical to watershed management, but this understanding is often complicated by the presence of multiple contaminant sources and by changes in landscape conditions over varying time scales. The USGS adapted spatially referenced regression (SPARROW) to infer causes of recent trends in nutrient loads in Chesapeake Bay tributaries by relating observed fluxes during 1992, 2002, and 2012 to contemporary inputs and watershed conditions. The annual flow-normalized nitrogen flux to the bay from its watershed declined 14 percent from 1992 to 2012, primarily as a result of reduced contributions from point sources. The remainder of the decrease was the result of reduced atmospheric deposition and smaller contributions from urban nonpoint sources. Agricultural inputs, which contribute more nitrogen to the bay than any other source, changed little. Point sources of phosphorus also declined substantially, although the flux of total phosphorus to the bay increased 9 percent, mainly as a result of reduced retention in Conowingo Reservoir.

 

**Addressing research gaps for managing bioavailable phosphorus.**

Orthophosphate (PO4) is the most bioavailable form of phosphorus, and excess PO4 can cause harmful algal blooms. Regional drivers of PO4 patterns remain poorly understood because most water-quality trend assessments and phosphorus reduction efforts focus on total phosphorus. A USGS study highlighted the effectiveness of point-source control for reducing PO4 exports, and underscores the need for management strategies to target sources, practices, and landscape factors that determine the loss of PO4 from soils in areas where manure inputs remain high.

Results also contributed to a STAC article where the USGS investigators worked with STAC members on the state of the science PO4 in the watershed.

 

**New Insights on using green stormwater infrastructure to reduce suburban runoff.**

The USGS worked with Montgomery County, Maryland, to improve understanding of the effectiveness of selected practices designed to mitigate stormwater. The study results showed that a high density of green stormwater infrastructure enhanced mitigation of peak flows and runoff volumes compared to the large, detention-based stormwater-control practices used at the urban control site. Green stormwater infrastructure could not completely replicate forested conditions across a range of precipitation events, however.

View Media Details

### Coastal Habitats and Water Birds

**USGS leads STAC report on water-clarity changes in Chesapeake Bay.**

Water clarity is widely recognized as an important indicator of the health and trophic state of aquatic ecosystems, and is a key management target given the limit it imposes on the growth of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV). The USGS led a multi-institution STAC workshop to synthesize the current state of the science on water-clarity trends and the factors that affect them, and to identify priorities for future research.

 

**A new, invasive, floating aquatic plant is spreading in the Potomac River watershed.**

The USGS detected a new species of Eurasian water chestnut that had been growing unnoticed in the bay watershed since 1995 (http://mdinvasives.org/iotm/july-2019/). An investigation of many species of water chestnut from around the world revealed that this species is called *Trapa bispinosa* (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304377018302298). It is newly introduced from Asia and is not reported to occur anywhere in the United States outside the Potomac River watershed (https://nas.er.usgs.gov/viewer/omap.aspx?SpeciesID=2974). Once in a water body, it quickly covers the water surface to depths of as much as 10 feet. It changes the ecology, negatively affects water flow, interferes with the exchange of oxygen to the water, blocks sunlight from reaching the bottom, and shades out bay grasses.

 

**Assessing beach and island habitat loss in the Chesapeake Bay and Delmarva coastal bay region.**

Beaches and islands have economic value to humans and supply critical habitat for breeding and foraging wildlife. These ecosystems, however, are experiencing severe adverse effects as a result of global climate change and sea-level rise through increased erosion and frequency of inundation. A case study was conducted to document island loss in the Chesapeake Bay and Delmarva coastal bays from 1986 to 2016. New image-processing techniques within a geographic information system were used to interpret the data. 

 

### Watershed Vulnerability and Resiliency

View Media Details

**Sharing scientific information through the Watershed Data Dashboard.**

The USGS is collaborating with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to provide access to a wide variety of scientific information that can be effective for decision making. The Watershed Data Dashboard provides a consolidated view of tidal and nontidal waters, geographic targeting information, management practice implementation, and planning for land-use change for the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The USGS also oversees the continued population and expansion of the Chesapeake Bay Open Data Portal, which provides web-based access to CBP and partner data and application resources.

 

**USGS coordinates acquisition and delivery of lidar data to support land-cover change and habitat assessments.**

The USGS and 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) partners collected lidar (light detection and ranging) data to improve topographic elevation information needed to revise land-cover data and flow characteristics. The USGS, together with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), funded the acquisition of lidar data in the Susquehanna River Basin in central Pennsylvania. Quality Level 2 lidar data were also collected for 12 counties along the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay portion of Virginia. The information will be used to help understand sediment movement, and to better assess to the effects of sea-level rise in coastal waterfowl habitat areas.

 

**Employing an ecosystem services framework to deliver decision-ready science.**

The USGS, in partnership with the USFWS and others, has been investigating carbon resources and ecosystem services to inform land-management decisions in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. An ecosystem services framework was employed to integrate and balance multiple objectives, including the social, economic, and environmental aspects of land management. Key lessons learned include the mismatch in timing between physical and social science; the challenge of integrating methods from multiple disciplines; the importance of frequent communication to improve collaborative research; and the importance of developing an integrating framework for ecosystem services and supporting tools, such as the dynamic ecosystem model.

 

### For additional information

See the USGS Chesapeake Bay Activities website**Scott Phillips**, USGS Chesapeake Bay Coordinator, swphilli@usgs.gov, office: 443-498-5552, cell: 410-925-8098**Ken Hyer**, USGS Chesapeake Bay Associate Coordinator, kenhyer@usgs.gov, office: 804-261-2636, cell: 804-382-7111

Click here to access a PDF Version of this page.

*Finalized March 26, 2020*

 

 

*« Return to Chesapeake Bay Activities and Accomplishments**« Return to Chesapeake Bay Activities — About*

### Study Area

### Explore Search

                      - Biology
                      - Climate
                      - Coasts
                      - Ecosystems
                      - Information Systems
                      - Methods and Analyses
                      - Science Technology
                      - Water

View All **

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) works with Federal, State, and academic science partners to conduct monitoring and research in the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem, the Nation’s largest estuary, and other critical ecosystems across the country. The USGS interacts thorough the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) to apply science-based decision making for restoration and conservation efforts.

The CBP consists of the Federal Government, six states, and the District of Columbia, to make progress toward achieving the goals in the Chesapeake Watershed Agreement (2014-25). The goals focus on restoring and conserving recreational fish, waterbird species, and their habitats, as well as the lands important for the 18 million residents of the watershed.

USGS Chesapeake studies are organized around four science themes:
                                - Theme 1: Develop an integrated understanding of the factors affecting stream health, fish habitat, and aquatic conditions.
                                - Theme 2: Assess the risks to coastal habitat and migratory waterbirds.
                                - Theme 3: Characterize land use to assess the vulnerability and resiliency of habitats and healthy watersheds. 
                                - Theme 4: Integrate science and inform decision making. 

USGS Chesapeake studies are supported by six Mission Areas (Ecosystems, Environmental Health, Water, Land Resources, Core Science Systems, and Hazards), collectively providing $12.85 million in 2019. Monitoring and projects are carried out by multiple USGS Science Centers.

 

### Selected USGS Chesapeake Highlights for 2019

→ **Stream Health:**Predicting biological conditions in streams; monitoring the trapping of nutrients and sediment in floodplains.→ **Fish Habitat**: Citizen science for brook trout; thermal effects on brook trout; movement of smallmouth bass; Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) workshop on fish health and toxic contaminants; screening tool for toxic contaminants.→ **Aquatic Conditions (River Flow):** Examining the effects of record freshwater flow to the bay in 2019; extreme floods in eastern North America during the past two millennia.→ **Aquatic Conditions (Nutrients and sediment): **Explaining changes in nutrient and sediment conditions in rivers across the watershed**;**controls on patterns of orthophosphate in tributaries to Chesapeake Bay; phosphorus and the Chesapeake Bay; emerging concerns for agriculture, effects of stormwater practices in suburban developments.→ **Coastal Habitats and Water Birds**: STAC water-clarity report; assessing beach and island habitat loss; invasive submerged aquatic grasses.→ **Watershed Vulnerability and Resiliency:**Ecosystem services; watershed dashboard; enhanced land-elevation data.  

 

### Stream Health

**Predicting biological conditions for small headwater streams in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.**

A primary goal for Chesapeake Bay watershed restoration is to improve stream health and function in 10 percent of stream miles by 2025. Biological condition is measured with the Chesapeake Bay Basin-wide Index of Biotic Integrity (Chessie BIBI), which is based on monitoring of stream macroinvertebrates. The USGS worked with partners to develop a model to predict biological condition in all unsurveyed small streams in a 1:24,000-scale catchment layer. The results were used to update the Chesapeake BIBI ratings so they can be used to more accurately assess baseline conditions and progress over time. 

 

**Understanding how floodplains trap nutrients and sediment.**

The USGS released several publications to provide better understanding of the trapping of nutrients and sediment in the stream floodplain before they reach the Chesapeake Bay and tidal waters. One study examined controls on the spatial variability of the denitrification potential of floodplains, while another addressed the trapping and release of nutrients and sediment after floodplain reconnection along the Pocomoke River in Maryland.

 

View Media Details

### Fish Habitat and Health

**Citizens help with brook trout monitoring.**

Project eTrout led by the USGS, explored the use of crowdsourcing and virtual reality to estimate the abundance of brook trout in headwater streams of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Project eTrout engages students, anglers, and citizen scientists of all ages in fish-ecology and climate-change research.

 

**Laboratory studies help determine reactions of brook trout to thermal changes.**

Laboratory studies conducted by the USGS showed that brook trout foraging generally declined with increasing stream temperatures, and fish increased thermal refuge use, with a steeper decline in forage patch occupancy observed in larger fish. These findings indicate that larger individuals may be more vulnerable to increasing stream temperatures. This paper was featured in the *Journal of Fish Biology*.

View Media Details

**Movement dynamics of smallmouth bass in a large river‐tributary system.**

A tagging study by USGS, conducted by cooperators and USGS, revealed that smallmouth bass in the Susquehanna River moved large distances annually and had three peak movement periods—prespawn, post‐spawn, and overwintering. Movement into and out of tributaries was common, but the movement between mainstem river and tributary habitats varied among tagging locations and season. In addition, connectivity between the river mainstem and the tributary appears to be an important factor for smallmouth bass during key life-history events.

 

**USGS leads workshop on toxic contaminants in urban and agricultural settings.**

The CBP Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC), under the leadership of the USGS, brought together experts from across the country to consider innovative ways to reduce contaminants in urban and agricultural settings in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Participants examined contaminants that affect fish health and the risk to humans who consume them, as well as the effectiveness of certain best management practices to reduce contaminants of concern in both types of land-use settings.

View Media Details

 

**Screening tool to understand exposure to contaminants from incidental wastewater reuse.**

The USGS created a screening tool to understand human and wildlife exposure to toxicants and pathogens associated with the incidental reuse of treated wastewater in the Shenandoah River watershed. The tool can be applied to predict the likelihood of the presence of contaminants from upstream wastewater discharges at downstream locations, including surface-water intakes at drinking-water facilities.

 

### Aquatic Conditions: River Flow to the Bay

**Record high river flows into the Chesapeake Bay during 2019.**

View Media Details

Freshwater flow into Chesapeake Bay during water year (WY) 2019 was the highest on record. The USGS monitors freshwater flow and provides results for each water year, which follows the natural hydrologic cycle from October through the following September. The annual average freshwater flow into the Chesapeake Bay during WY 2019 was 130,750 cubic feet per second (ft3/s), the highest annual flow since 1937, the first year for which data are available. The previous record of 121,125 ft3/s was set in WY 1972, which was influenced by Hurricane Agnes. The record flow washed large amounts of contaminants into Chesapeake Bay, affected dissolved-oxygen concentrations, and degraded habitat conditions for oysters, crabs, and finfish.

 

**“The mighty Susquehanna”—Extreme floods in eastern North America during the past two millennia.**

The USGS developed a history of high‐flow events on the Susquehanna River during the past 2000 years from sediment cores recovered from the Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis, Maryland. Large flood events were identified by examining coarse‐grained sediments deposited by Hurricane Agnes in 1972 and the Great Flood of 1936, as well as during three intervals that predate instrumental flood records (~1800–1500, 1300–1100, and 400–0 C.E.). Comparison of other proxy data from the same core site indicates that prehistoric flooding on the Susquehanna River often accompanied cooler‐than‐usual winter/spring temperatures near Chesapeake Bay—typical of negative phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation and conditions thought to foster hurricane landfalls along the East Coast.

 

### Aquatic Conditions: Nutrients and Sediment

**Explaining nitrogen and phosphorus trends in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.**

Understanding trends in stream chemistry is critical to watershed management, but this understanding is often complicated by the presence of multiple contaminant sources and by changes in landscape conditions over varying time scales. The USGS adapted spatially referenced regression (SPARROW) to infer causes of recent trends in nutrient loads in Chesapeake Bay tributaries by relating observed fluxes during 1992, 2002, and 2012 to contemporary inputs and watershed conditions. The annual flow-normalized nitrogen flux to the bay from its watershed declined 14 percent from 1992 to 2012, primarily as a result of reduced contributions from point sources. The remainder of the decrease was the result of reduced atmospheric deposition and smaller contributions from urban nonpoint sources. Agricultural inputs, which contribute more nitrogen to the bay than any other source, changed little. Point sources of phosphorus also declined substantially, although the flux of total phosphorus to the bay increased 9 percent, mainly as a result of reduced retention in Conowingo Reservoir.

 

**Addressing research gaps for managing bioavailable phosphorus.**

Orthophosphate (PO4) is the most bioavailable form of phosphorus, and excess PO4 can cause harmful algal blooms. Regional drivers of PO4 patterns remain poorly understood because most water-quality trend assessments and phosphorus reduction efforts focus on total phosphorus. A USGS study highlighted the effectiveness of point-source control for reducing PO4 exports, and underscores the need for management strategies to target sources, practices, and landscape factors that determine the loss of PO4 from soils in areas where manure inputs remain high.

Results also contributed to a STAC article where the USGS investigators worked with STAC members on the state of the science PO4 in the watershed.

 

**New Insights on using green stormwater infrastructure to reduce suburban runoff.**

The USGS worked with Montgomery County, Maryland, to improve understanding of the effectiveness of selected practices designed to mitigate stormwater. The study results showed that a high density of green stormwater infrastructure enhanced mitigation of peak flows and runoff volumes compared to the large, detention-based stormwater-control practices used at the urban control site. Green stormwater infrastructure could not completely replicate forested conditions across a range of precipitation events, however.

View Media Details

### Coastal Habitats and Water Birds

**USGS leads STAC report on water-clarity changes in Chesapeake Bay.**

Water clarity is widely recognized as an important indicator of the health and trophic state of aquatic ecosystems, and is a key management target given the limit it imposes on the growth of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV). The USGS led a multi-institution STAC workshop to synthesize the current state of the science on water-clarity trends and the factors that affect them, and to identify priorities for future research.

 

**A new, invasive, floating aquatic plant is spreading in the Potomac River watershed.**

The USGS detected a new species of Eurasian water chestnut that had been growing unnoticed in the bay watershed since 1995 (http://mdinvasives.org/iotm/july-2019/). An investigation of many species of water chestnut from around the world revealed that this species is called *Trapa bispinosa* (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304377018302298). It is newly introduced from Asia and is not reported to occur anywhere in the United States outside the Potomac River watershed (https://nas.er.usgs.gov/viewer/omap.aspx?SpeciesID=2974). Once in a water body, it quickly covers the water surface to depths of as much as 10 feet. It changes the ecology, negatively affects water flow, interferes with the exchange of oxygen to the water, blocks sunlight from reaching the bottom, and shades out bay grasses.

 

**Assessing beach and island habitat loss in the Chesapeake Bay and Delmarva coastal bay region.**

Beaches and islands have economic value to humans and supply critical habitat for breeding and foraging wildlife. These ecosystems, however, are experiencing severe adverse effects as a result of global climate change and sea-level rise through increased erosion and frequency of inundation. A case study was conducted to document island loss in the Chesapeake Bay and Delmarva coastal bays from 1986 to 2016. New image-processing techniques within a geographic information system were used to interpret the data. 

 

### Watershed Vulnerability and Resiliency

View Media Details

**Sharing scientific information through the Watershed Data Dashboard.**

The USGS is collaborating with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to provide access to a wide variety of scientific information that can be effective for decision making. The Watershed Data Dashboard provides a consolidated view of tidal and nontidal waters, geographic targeting information, management practice implementation, and planning for land-use change for the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The USGS also oversees the continued population and expansion of the Chesapeake Bay Open Data Portal, which provides web-based access to CBP and partner data and application resources.

 

**USGS coordinates acquisition and delivery of lidar data to support land-cover change and habitat assessments.**

The USGS and 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) partners collected lidar (light detection and ranging) data to improve topographic elevation information needed to revise land-cover data and flow characteristics. The USGS, together with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), funded the acquisition of lidar data in the Susquehanna River Basin in central Pennsylvania. Quality Level 2 lidar data were also collected for 12 counties along the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay portion of Virginia. The information will be used to help understand sediment movement, and to better assess to the effects of sea-level rise in coastal waterfowl habitat areas.

 

**Employing an ecosystem services framework to deliver decision-ready science.**

The USGS, in partnership with the USFWS and others, has been investigating carbon resources and ecosystem services to inform land-management decisions in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. An ecosystem services framework was employed to integrate and balance multiple objectives, including the social, economic, and environmental aspects of land management. Key lessons learned include the mismatch in timing between physical and social science; the challenge of integrating methods from multiple disciplines; the importance of frequent communication to improve collaborative research; and the importance of developing an integrating framework for ecosystem services and supporting tools, such as the dynamic ecosystem model.

 

### For additional information

See the USGS Chesapeake Bay Activities website**Scott Phillips**, USGS Chesapeake Bay Coordinator, swphilli@usgs.gov, office: 443-498-5552, cell: 410-925-8098**Ken Hyer**, USGS Chesapeake Bay Associate Coordinator, kenhyer@usgs.gov, office: 804-261-2636, cell: 804-382-7111

Click here to access a PDF Version of this page.

*Finalized March 26, 2020*

 

 

*« Return to Chesapeake Bay Activities and Accomplishments**« Return to Chesapeake Bay Activities — About*

### Study Area

### Explore Search

                      - Biology
                      - Climate
                      - Coasts
                      - Ecosystems
                      - Information Systems
                      - Methods and Analyses
                      - Science Technology
                      - Water

View All **