jhu-field-work

Photo credit: JHU

Faculty, students, and other research scientists at CRC institutions have been collaborating on research relevant to management of the Chesapeake Bay since the CRC’s inception in 1972. In addition to direct research on the Bay’s living resources and many important fisheries, our scientists have also been responsible for developing most of our current understanding about the physical circulation the water in the Bay’s and its many tributaries, of the biogeochemical factors that affect the quality of its waters and sediments, and of the workings of the complex human and natural actions and processes  throughout its 64,000 square-mile watershed It is the interplay of all of these many  human, terrestrial, and aquatic processes that affect the entire Chesapeake Bay  ecosystem, from communities forests and fields to local groundwater and streams, through major rivers, to tidal fresh estuaries, estuarine tributaries, and finally to the main stem of the Bay itself.

Research takes many forms and comes from many places, embracing virtually all disciplines of natural science, engineering, and social science, and requiring carefully organized teams with good transdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary integration, often by combinations of estuarine and  ecological scientists, environmental engineers, economists, systems analysts, and managers, working hand-in-hand with community members, commercial fisherman, and other stake holders. Such on-going research efforts, and particularly the trans-disciplinary integrated research projects, are critical to increasing our understanding about the Chesapeake and the factors affecting it and, fortunately, are very highly valued within the current Chesapeake Bay Program Partnership. (The CRC  has been an active member of the Partnership since its formation in 1984.)  For over 40 years, the CRC has served to enhance this research by facilitating collaboration among other scientists both within and outside of the Consortium, helping to synthesize and analyze available information, working among partners to help to identify he most pressing research needs, and, very importantly, facilitating information exchange among researchers and managers.

In our CRC Quarterly Newsletter, we make a point of describing some of the typical (exemplary) projects that involve multiple CRC institutions as well as selected examples of projects that are underway principally at one of or member institutions. This web page provides  easy access to past articles, as EXAMPLES of the kinds of research we do.

Collaborative Research around the Bay (CRaB)

Welcoming Back Underwater Grasses – CRC Quarterly Spring 2018

Johns Hopkins University

Old Dominion University

Penn State University

SERC

UMCES

VIMS

Virginia Tech