Bay is breathing easier; scientists credit grasses
Concentrations of nitrogen in the bay fell by 23 percent while the areas covered with submerged vegetation more than tripled
Researchers say Chesapeake Bay cleanup initiatives have triggered a major resurgence of the underwater grasses that are at the center of the estuary’s fragile food web.
Scientists from across Maryland and Virginia say that from 1984 to 2014, concentrations of nitrogen in the bay fell by 23 percent while the acreage of areas covered with submerged vegetation more than tripled, to nearly 100 square miles.
They wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, one of science’s premier journals, that the finding “speaks directly to the value” of coordinated cleanup efforts like a so-called pollution diet that was imposed on the Chesapeake watershed in 2010.
“The diet is working,” said Bill Dennison, vice president for science applications at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science in Cambridge, and one of the study’s authors.
“We can definitely link this reduction of nutrients to the surge of grasses, and See BAY, page 6
Scientists from across Maryland and Virginia say that from 1984 to 2014, concentrations of nitrogen in the bay fell by 23 percent while the acreage of areas covered with submerged vegetation more than tripled, to nearly 100 square miles.
They wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, one of science’s premier journals, that the finding “speaks directly to the value” of coordinated cleanup efforts like a so-called pollution diet that was imposed on the Chesapeake watershed in 2010.
“The diet is working,” said Bill Dennison, vice president for science applications at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science in Cambridge, and one of the study’s authors.
“We can definitely link this reduction of nutrients to the surge of grasses, and See BAY, page 6
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