R/WQ-7

Strategic focus area:

Description:

The Chesapeake Bay (CB) restoration is at a critical juncture. Just two years out from a 2025 deadline, water quality goals will likely not be reached. This is in part due to a struggle by local governments to prioritize nutrient reduction efforts with limited resources. There is also an increasing recognition by the CB Partnership that initiatives should focus on restoring shallow-water ecosystems near the land-water interface: habitats that are insufficiently monitored but highly relevant to societal use and the restoration goals of local governments. The goal of this proposal is to leverage a unique, multi-decade monitoring dataset in the shallow sub-estuaries of Calvert County, MD to perform a synthesis of water-quality controls, climate change effects, and watershed features with the aim of providing county governments with tools to prioritize the use of restoration dollars. This analysis is possible given the availability of a substantial tidal monitoring dataset, existing model-based and empirical watershed nutrient and sediment loading rates, and a strong collaborative partnership between project PIs, county planners, and county commissioners.