Session Lead: Qian Zhang

Co-Lead(s): Isabella Bertani, Rebecca Murphy, John Clune

Session Format: Oral presentations

Session Description:

Restoration of complex aquatic ecosystems such as Chesapeake Bay requires continued, coordinated efforts from the science and resource management communities. These efforts often include development of innovative monitoring techniques and modeling tools that provide feedback on restoration progress, and novel scientific communication approaches of these results that can drive the direction for future management actions. Over three decades of coordinated restoration, the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed have been monitored systematically with both existing and new techniques and modeled with tools that are incrementally enhanced with new scientific findings. This session aims to highlight water-quality patterns and trends along the land-river-estuary continuum, with a focus on empirical and mechanistic approaches that link different types of data and models to help understand how various drivers have triggered such responses. Specific topics may include but are not limited to: (a) innovative approaches that enable enhanced monitoring of the estuary and watershed at high temporal and spatial resolutions; (b) approaches that integrate monitoring data collected at different frequencies and locations to describe fine-scale variability and/or inform models; and (c) applications of novel empirical and mechanistic tools to understand watershed and estuarine responses to land changes and management actions. In addition, we seek contributions that highlight science communication approaches designed to transform these monitoring and model-based findings into actionable information for the management community. This session will highlight progress, challenges, and prospects for research, monitoring, and modeling efforts that are relevant to the management and restoration of Chesapeake Bay.

Presenters: 

Christopher Mason – Nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended-sediment loads and trends measured at the Chesapeake Bay River Input Monitoring stations: Water years 1985-2020

James Webber – Evaluating Water-Quality Drivers in Streams of Fairfax County, Virginia

Sujata Poudel – Phenology and Water Quality Impacts of an invasive Water Chestnut (Trapa bispinsoa Roxb. var iinumai Nakano) in Northern Virginia, USA and evaluation of Early Detection/Rapid Response (EDRR) practices in its control

Whitney Lisenbee – Modeling Land Use and Climate Change Scenarios to Manage Water Quality in Integrated Agricultural-Urban Landscapes

Gourab Saha – Quantifying the Water Quality Benefits of Implementing Manureshed Concept-based Manure Management in the Susquehanna River Basin

Paniz Mohammadpour – How do policy and land management decisions impact nitrogen loss from the food production chain in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed?

Shuyu Chang – Chesapeake legacies: The importance of legacy nitrogen to improving Chesapeake Bay water quality 

Qian Zhang – Nutrient limitation of phytoplankton in three tidal tributaries of Chesapeake Bay: A machine learning approach for detecting ecosystem recovery following nutrient reductions

Rebecca Murphy- Nutrient Improvements in Chesapeake Bay: Direct Effect of Load Reductions and Implications for Coastal Management

Marjorie Friedrichs – Nitrogen reductions have decreased hypoxia in the Chesapeake Bay: Evidence from empirical and numerical modeling

Elgin Perry – Baytrends Cluster analysis Methods

Breck Sullivan – CBP Tributary Summaries: Communication tool on water quality changes to inform management decisions

Dong Liang – A spatiotemporal synthesis of high-resolution monitoring data with applications to aquaculture

Shelly Tomlinson – An evaluation of an improved chlorophyll-a algorithm for Chesapeake Bay to support operational monitoring and assessment

Jessie Turner – Long-term Trends in Chesapeake Bay Remote Sensing Reflectance: Implications for Water Clarity

Shannon McDonnell – A detailed optical analysis of chromophoric dissolved organic matter in the Chesapeake Bay

Anna Windle – Optical classification of water quality in the Chesapeake Bay

Cosette Larash – Chesapeake Water Watch: Smart phones and satellites used in developing new ways to assess water quality in Chesapeake Bay