Chesapeake Bay Eutrophication

The Chesapeake Bay is a 200-mile-long estuary extending from Norfolk, VA to Havre de grace Maryland. On average this bay contains about 68 trillion liters of water. This bay is the largest estuary in North America. It inhabits more than 3,000 species of plants, animals, and fish. “Since the early twentieth century, the Chesapeake Bay has experienced serious environmental degradation. Problems include large reductions in sea grass, reduced amounts of finfish and shellfish (especially oysters and crab), seasonal depletions in dissolved oxygen, and increases in sedimentation.” (Atkins & Anderson, 2003) These changes are brought on by pollution (Eutrophication and Toxic Contamination), development, deforestation, and agriculture. And according

It is their home, their thriving place. According to the National WIldlife Federation, ¨The Bay supports 3,600 species of plant and animal life, including more than 300 fish species and 2,700 plant types.”. Not only does the wildlife depend on the bay, but humans do as well. The Chesapeake Bay contains a 64,000-square-mile watershed, this watershed provides large amounts of drinking water for us in Maryland, along with several other states. Everyday, the condition of the water declines, meaning the home for wildlife and our drinking water does too. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation pointed out that, ¨Toxic chemicals are constantly entering the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers and streams via wastewater, agriculture, stormwater, and air pollution. These harmful chemicals, such as mercury, PCBs, and PAHs, do not break down easily and persist in the environment for many years, impacting not just fish and birds, but humans as well.¨. How important does the restoration of the bay sound

Scientists and researchers began giving a large volume of effort and look into the extremely complex problems that face the Chesapeake Bay. When research for the improving and saving of the Bay’s overall health began it seemed very simple and there were only a couple of problems. The problems included nutrients from agricultural runoff; these nutrients were phosphorus and nitrogen. The combination of the nutrients in the Bay caused a large volume of algae that choked some of the marine life. While bringing in algae the nutrients also killed grasses on the seafloor. These seafloor bed grasses that once covered more than half of the Chesapeake Bay’s floor now only covered a tenth of their original area. Though the estuary was having problems it did not receive the terrible pollution from industries that many large rivers and lakes do in other urban areas (Brown, p. 397).

The Chesapeake Bay is one of the largest and most useful renewable resources not only in the United States, but in the world. The Chesapeake can be replenished naturally and has been used for hundreds of years. There are many use and non-use values of the Chesapeake. Use value implies that attributes of nature are being utilized in some sense. In the case of the Chesapeake this can refer to the crabbing, fishing, ecotourism and scenic values of the bay. Ecotourism is when people visit a natural or environmental resource to engage in outdoor recreation of some sort. Non-use values are values expressed by humans simply for the existence of natural resources. Two more specific non-use values to the Chesapeake would be option value and

Types of human activity that affect the Bay's health. Humans either do not see or do not care about the pollution they send into the water. As humans build more factories close to the water or send more waste out of their homes it goes into the Bay causing many problems for the ecosystem. "waste from people's homes, stores, and offices is also treated and discharged into the Bay and its rivers. " (Chesapeake Bay Ecosystem) People do not understand the effects of pollution the Chesapeake Bay Ecosystem says that people believe the water where the pollution is going will dilute the pollution and won’t be as bad. Humans do no understand the problems pollution will cause. The population of the Blue Crabs in the Bay was below average for over 10 years. From 1998 until 2009 the crab ecosystem was so unhealthy they were unable to live and reproduce.

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. About half of the Bay’s water volume comes from salt water from the Atlantic Ocean. The other half drains into the Bay from its enormous 64,000-square-mile watershed. Estuaries are among the most productive environments on earth, creating more organic matter each year than similarly-sized forests and agricultural areas. Estuaries also provide diverse habitats for wildlife and aquatic life, protect our communities against flooding, reduce pollution of waterways, and support local economies through commercial and recreational activities. Thousands of species

Eutrophication is a concern in the Chesapeake Bay. Eutrophication is caused by excessive amounts of nutrients. Excessive nutrients in the bay have negative effects on the bay's ecosystem. The extra nutrients make the environment unbalanced. The extra nutrients cause a chain reaction that eventually kills most of the organisms in that area. This is what is known as a dead zone.

An estuary system is “the resulting collisions of sweet and salt-fresh river water flowing seaward and ocean water inland.” It is an aquatic system where salt and freshwater are constantly mixing. An estuary system is one of most active systems of the planet; it is a hybrid system that contains the best and worst qualities of the ocean, river, and lake systems it conglomerates. Estuaries are unique in nature because of their ability to be the most productive ecosystem on the entire planet; humans have attempted and failed to reach the productivity that estuaries naturally grant. There productivity lies it the constant change that occurs from the conflicting flows of fresh and ocean water. Ocean and freshwater are measured largely based on salinity, or the level of parts of salt per thousand. Ocean water usually

In this research paper I will talk about how a large decrease in the algae population in the Chesapeake Bay will cause problems for not just fish and other species but the people who fish and make a living off of it. A large decrease in algae population will have a domino effect on the food chain. Having a major decrease in algae will hurt how others species live and protect themselves.

This article presents the impact of low oxygen waters on Chesapeake Bay Zoo-plankton. Anoxia (oxygen deficiency) reduces the cope-pod abundances in Chesapeake's bottom waters, and disrupts the cope-pods inhabits towards the bottom and their migration to the surface. Also, cope-pods will have limited survival ability in low oxygen conditions in bottom waters. Results show the number of cope-pods surviving for 24 hours were significantly lower in water containing smaller milligrams of oxygen liter. Some will have a greater chance of survival because of their low metabolism that requires smaller oxygen. Low oxygen reduces the filtration rate of zoo-plankton and the filtration rate of the fresh water. Decreased filtration reduces metabolic rate in low-oxygen conditions, generally occur in the mesohaline part in summer. Low oxygen-levels may cut phyto-plankton and Cope pod's production. Lower oxygen concentration prevents hatching and the growth of eggs, which eggs could survive a few days if temperatures are cold and as the eggs sink to the bottom.

Throughout the years, humans have definitely increased their capacity to innovate and improve. With the industrial revolution, humans could produce things at a much faster and efficient way. By increasing the amount of production, the environment has undergone a huge impact to support the various activities of humankind. One small example of this is the impacts on the Chesapeake Bay. There are various effects on the Bay all causes of human activity. To formulate a plan to restore the health of Chesapeake Bay, we must first understand which causes are impacting the health of the ecosystem and which measures can be taken to restore the Bay back to health.

Overall the best solution from the three is to plant more trees around Chesapeake Bay so it will clean the air. A positive environmental consequence is that the more trees that they plant will make the air cleaner. When the air is cleaner it will decrease the chance of acid rain, and acid rain will make the water worse for the animals. If the animals stay alive then more of the wildlife will come back and that will revive the ecosystem around the bay. A negative environmental would be that the trees will take a long time to grow. It takes 3-4 years for a normal tree to grow, that is way to long to wait for the pollution problem to be

The Chesapeake Bay Program is doing many things to help with prevention of water quality. Extreme amounts of nutrients and sedimentation are entering the

The Hudson-James Bay (HJB) complex has a total annual discharge of 760 km3, based on which, the annual runoff yield of HJB was reported as 0.9 to >1m (Déry et al., 2011; Granskog et al., 2011). This reported yield was found to be three times greater than the total yield of the Arctic Ocean, with the receiving volume (depth averaged 125m), also, was much smaller than the Arctic Ocean (Serreze et al., 2006). This implies the huge runoff volume into the Hudson Bay. Most of the riverine flow is through the James Bay which is approximately 80% of the total volume (Granskog et al., 2007). Addition of significant volume of freshwater to a marine system has obvious impacts on the physical, chemical, biological, and geological systems of the bay. Not

(Cheshire, iii HYPERLINK "http://www.unep.org/regionalseas/marinelitter/publications/docs/NMDMP_REPORT_Ocean_Conservancy__2_.pdf" ). The amount of nutrient runoff is measured by measuring the number of “dead zones”, and zones which are said to be eutrophied (Rabalais, 1528 HYPERLINK "http://icesjms.oxfordjournals.org/content/66/7/1528.full" ). There are an estimated 169 dead zones and 415 coastal areas that suffer from eutrophication (Steiner, 25).