Penn State Researchers Find Central Pennsylvania Farmland Resilient to Erosion Central Pennsylvania farmland may not erode as quickly as expected due to geology and land-use history, according to Penn State researchers. “Land-use history and the underlying geology go hand-in-hand,” said Perri Silverhart, a master’s student in the Department of Geosciences at Penn State. “The places [...]
Shale Network Workshop at Penn State The Marcellus Shale region in Pennsylvania is famous for its large quantities of shale gas reserves. Fracking of these reserves has led to water quality impacts, endangering human health. To better understand the risks, scientists want more data on water quality from across the region. Picture from the 2019 [...]
Understanding the Dynamics of the Chesapeake Bay's Dead Zone It seems like everyone this year is talking about the record rainfall and enormous dead zone predicted in the Chesapeake Bay. The story has been all over the news (e.g., The Bay Journal, Baltimore Sun, and ScienceDaily, to name a few). Jeremy Testa holding a sediment [...]
Harnessing the Power of Citizen Scientists The SERC team deploying tiles into the San Francisco Bay in 2016. Credit: SERC/Marine Invasions Lab Imagine working on a small team of field researchers and having to process 100,000 images. What used to take years and tons of funding to accomplish can now be done quickly [...]
Understanding the Rise of Ghost Forests along the East Coast A quintessential ghost forest in Virginia. Credit: Matthew Kirwan/VIMS Climate change induced saltwater intrusion has led to "ghost forests" along coastlines around the world. As sea levels rise, coastal forests are transitioning to marsh lands and open water. These areas are characterized by [...]
Blue Catfish on the Move With record rainfall and freshwater surges into tributaries of the Bay, it is easier than ever for blue catfish to enter new territory. They are turning up in high numbers in the James, Potomac, and small tributaries all over the watershed, including formerly high-salinity areas that are now awash with rainwater. [...]
In addition to supporting four of our eleven 2019 C-StREAM fellows, the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office also works with the CRC every year to hire two to four other more senior-level interns (post baccalaureate or graduate students) to help NCBO scientists with summer projects. This year, our interns have been involved in some pretty interesting projects. The [...]
New and Continuing C-StREAM Fellows This summer, the CRC welcomed one continuing C-StREAM Felllow (Nick Coleman) and ten new interns, all of whom were introduced in in our May Newsletter. They have all been having a productive summer, spending time on boats, in the field, at computers, and in labs at locations around the watershed. All will have [...]
