Rob Hale, a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), has been studying plastics since the 1990's. His research in the past showed substantial levels of flame retardants, which are often added to plastics to reduce flammability, in wastewater, sewage, soils, sediments, dust, and in organisms. His findings led to worldwide limitations on these [...]
Submerged aquatic vegetation, or bay grasses, in the Severn River Sanctuary in Anne Arundel County, Md., on July 10, 2016. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program) Scientists from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) have led surveys of underwater grasses since 1979. In 2017, they recorded 104,843 acres of grasses, exceeding the Chesapeake [...]
At the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts this past July, Penn State University (PSU) professor Denice Wardrop joined the Art of Discovery booth to showcase relationships between humans and plastics. Wardrop is a professor of ecology and geography and helped the booth with the plastics project as a follow up to an exhibit at the [...]
A researcher at University of Maryland Department of Environmental Science and Technology has invented a new way to measure the quality of wetland soils. Since wetlands are heavily protected, classifying an area as a wetland is an important and often difficult job for assessors because confirmation of the presence of wetland soils requires proof that certain biogeochemical processes [...]
A team of researchers from Virginia Tech (VT), University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES), Penn State (PSU), and USDA published a new climate change study in Science of the Total Environment this past May. The goal of the study was to better understand nutrient exports from agricultural landscapes under the effects of climate change. The research [...]
Summer is here and for many of us, this means vacation time! Taking a moment from our daily routines to enjoy the people, places, and activities we love is always a rejuvenating experience. We often return to our routines with fresh perspectives and energy, ready to take our work up a notch. After my own vacation, one [...]
The Chesapeake Bay Program’s Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) is administered by the CRC and funded through a cooperative agreement with the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) Partnership – currently spanning the period 2016-2022. The CRC has had a long-standing role of administering all activities of STAC, an active committee with 38 members from academic and [...]
Dear colleagues, I hope you all are having a great summer. The patterns of daily weather change have certainly been unusual (at least to the best of my own rusty memory ...), but I think we've all been well warned that variability and heat are on the long-term rise in our region. Meanwhile, though, there have certainly been some [...]
