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 [...]
