NCCOS Assessment: Coastal Ecosystem Assessment of Chesapeake Bay Watersheds, Land Use Patterns and River Conditions from 2007-04-30 to 2012-09-27 (NCEI Accession 0303961)

This data collection comprises six years of estuarine monitoring for an assessment of coastal ecosystem health in relationship to watershed characteristics, principally land use. This investigation began in 2007 with three mesohaline (moderate salinity) rivers in the upper Chesapeake Bay, each dominated by a unique land use pattern. The Corsica, Magothy, and Rhode rivers were chosen to represent systems dominated by agricultural, residential, and mixed-use lands, respectively. Assessment of these three rivers continued annually through 2011. From 2010 to 2012, three additional oligohaline (low salinity) rivers were studied. These three--the Sassafras, Middle, and Nanjemoy Rivers--demonstrated the health effects of predominantly agricultural, urban, and forested lands, respectively. The health of each riverine ecosystem was assessed using a suite of observations focused on water quality and aquatic organism health. Standard water quality metrics such as dissolved nutrient concentrations, water clarity, and indicator bacteria loads were measured. Organismal health measurements included metrics of blue crab health, fish abundance, dominant fish species, fish parasites, fish disease, and the abundance of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV). A complete description of the project can be found Leight et al. (2015).