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| Photo Courtesy of: CBF |
The Chesapeake Bay estuary is one of the largest estuaries in the United States covering a drainage area of approximately 64,000 square miles. Establishment of the Chesapeake Bay Agreement in 1983 was the first cooperative effort outlining restoration and protection of the Bay by improving water quality and living resources. In 2000, Batiuk et al. published a comprehensive report to provide an increased understanding of habitat requirements for submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV). It included target levels for water quality parameters necessary to support continued SAV survival and propagation as well as restoration efforts. However, the report focused mainly on the meso- and polyhaline SAV species present in tidal regions of the Bay. Strong in the view that upstream improvements will reduce downstream problems, select groups have more recently increased their interest in freshwater (FW) and low salinity SAV in the watershed. But scientific information pertaining to FW SAV in the Chesapeake Bay system is minimal. This information is critical for the health of the entire aquatic Bay ecosystem because the successful restoration of FW SAV is key to reducing the nutrient, contaminant, and suspended solid loads bombarding our lower Bay from its headwaters. The repercussions of their decline and/or loss are broad reaching, having the potential to impact pelagic and benthic flora and fauna through poorer water quality and increased eutrophication.
To facilitate FW SAV research and restoration in the Bay watershed, the Chesapeake Research Consortium (CRC) was asked to establish a partnership of institutions. At its inception in 2002, the FW SAV Partnership outlined its mission to expand current knowledge and research on 1) basic biology, physiology, and ecology of FW SAV and 2) new approaches to restoring these taxa. The Partnership further identified specific goals to: (1) compile existing information on freshwater/oligohaline SAV; (2) through fundamental research, a) determine environmental growth requirements for freshwater SAV species in the Bay; b) identify and develop new approaches to their propagation and restoration; (3) distribute all propagation and restoration results and methodologies to Federal, state, and local resource managers, researchers, and educational groups. The Partnership is committed to distributing SAV-related information and materials from partner institutions, project updates, and other FW SAV items of interest on the CRC website (www.chesapeake.org/SAV/partnershiphome.html) as a resource for the regional community.
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| Photo Courtesy of: MD DNR |
With support from the U.S. Army Environmental Center (AEC), Aberdeen Proving Ground, the CRC is overseeing activities of the Freshwater Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Partnership. The Partnership is currently comprised of 22 member institutions, including Federal and state agencies, academic institutions, and non-governmental organizations. The Partnership acts as a complement to the long-standing and on-going Chesapeake Bay Program's SAV Task Group efforts.
For more information about the Freshwater Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Partnership, please contact:
Rebecca Thur, Freshwater SAV Partnership Coordinator, at (410)798-1283 or (301)261-4500.
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