Environmental Monitoring in the Time of COVID-19 Our first webinar took place on Wednesday, September 23, 2020 from 12-1pm and we discussed Environmental Monitoring in the Time of COVID-19. During the first half of the webinar, our invited speakers provided an overview from federal, state, and citizen perspectives. For the second half of the [...]
Research in the Time of COVID-19 In the midst of great uncertainty brought on by the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Chesapeake Research Consortium’s (CRC) seven member institutions have shown resilience and adaptivity in conducting research, both in maintaining essential research but also in pursuing new and innovative research avenues. While we highlight how members of [...]
Shoreline and pier at the Naval Weapons Station Norfolk in Yorktown The Chesapeake Research Consortium is funding the design of a nearshore habitat restoration project on the York River in Virginia. The $40,000 in funding support will enable the Virginia Institute of Marine Science to develop a detailed blueprint and monitoring plan for an [...]
Dutton Institute Help Faculty Transtion to Online Learning Allen Kimel, associate teaching professor of materials science and engineering, successfully transitioned a course that requires group presentations to a dozen outside judges to Zoom with help from learning designers at Penn State. Credit: Penn State The Dutton Institute at Penn State had been working [...]
Study Predicts Heavier Rains for Five Eastern Shore Towns A new study conducted by researchers from the University of Maryland gives a detailed look into how climate change will influence extreme storm rainfall in Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Overall, their findings suggest that by the mid-21st century, a 100-year storm will bring heavier and more intense [...]
UMCES Scientists Find the Bay is More Resilient Than Expected (Credit: USGS) Sitting on the lower Susquehanna River, the Conowingo Dam has trapped most of the sediment and nutrients, like nitrogen and phosphorus, in its upstream reservoir, keeping them from flowing into the Chesapeake Bay. Recent concerns about the storage capacity of the [...]
Warming Temperatures May Be Better for Wetlands The Global Change Research Wetland (GCREW), located at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), is home to several long-term experiments designed to predict the effects of sea-level rise and climate change on coastal wetland ecosystems. Genevieve Noyce, a coastal wetland biogeochemist and research scientist at SERC, works on [...]
Using Watershed Data to Determine Cost-Effective BMPs A study from researchers at Penn State and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides a case study that using site-specific watershed data to determine the most cost-effective agricultural best management practices (BMPs) is not only less expensive, but equally effective. Researchers used the Spring Creek watershed — which drains an [...]
Penn State Researcher Helps Farmers Choose the Best Cover Crop Mix Nutrient pollution remains a major challenge for the Chesapeake Bay, but planting cover crops may be one of the strongest best management practices that farmers can use to reduce their impact. Dr. Jason Kaye of Penn State has spent a decade researching cover crop [...]
Shorter marsh grasses and adapting to sea level rise One of the experimental changes on the marsh. Credit: Tom Mozdzer. As carbon dioxide increases, most plants respond by getting bigger. CO2 acts like fuel for most plants, allowing them to grow higher and thicker, increasing their biomass. But what happens when you look [...]
