Chesapeake Bay bears a heavy pollution burden from the growing metropolitan centers and vibrant agricultural activity in the watershed. In the last fifty years, too many nutrients have poured into the watershed, causing large fish kills and habitat damage in the bay.
Nitrogen and phosphorus draining from farm fields, livestock manure, sewage treatment plants, industry, and car exhaust are powerful fertilizers that feed blooms of algae in the bay. Sudden population explosions of algae pull oxygen from the water in the bay and change its acidity, which stresses aquatic animals and can even lead to "dead zones" empty of economically valuable fish and shellfish. Murky water can block enough sunlight to harm or kill native aquatic plants, destroying critical habitat for Chesapeake Bay fish and other aquatic animals. Some algae are toxic, presenting a direct threat to the health of people and wildlife.
Roughly 100,000 streams and 50 major creeks and rivers drain into the bay form the enormous 64,000-square-mile watershed, flowing through agricultural lands, industrial centers, and some of the oldest and densest municipalities in the United States, including Washington, Baltimore, and Richmond. Encompassing parts of Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington D.C., the Chesapeake watershed is home to 27 million residents.
On December 29, 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, acting under the authority of the Clean Water Act, instituted a comprehensive "pollution diet" to address the slow progress on water quality problems in the watershed. The Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) sets pollution limits for nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment loads entering water bodies and includes accountability measures.
Manure from the many poultry farms in the Chesapeake watershed is a major source of excess nitrogen entering the bay. Maryland alone has 574 large-scale operations, each concentrating 37,500 or more birds in one place. Many are on the Eastern Shore. Disposing of all that chicken waste is a big problem for the farms; nearly one in five large operations has been fined by the State of Maryland recently for violating reporting requirements.
Nutrient solutions for agriculture: engaging rural residents and farmers
Cooking chicken manure into charcoal, or biochar, can turn a pollution problem into a potential farming resource. Biochar is an organic fertilizer that retains nitrogen in soil longer than inorganic nitrogen fertilizers and also captures the carbon in the manure in a stable form, returning it to the soil.
Rebecca Ryals of Brown University has compared plant growth and nutrient retention agricultural fields fertilized with biochar, raw manure, composted manure, and inorganic nitrogen fertilizer (urea). Her presentation is part of an organized session of talks about "Putting agroecology to work: from science to practice and policy," on Wednesday morning, August 12. Farmers are often willing to try new methods that improve ecological outcomes, but need economic and logistical support to make implementation practical. Ryals will also talk about the opportunities and barriers to implementing biochar use in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Mari-Vaughn Johnson, an agronomist at the US Department of Agriculture's Blackland Research and Extension Center in Temple, Texas, will follow Ryals with a USDA National Resources Conservation Service case study report on conservation gains through voluntary actions by private land owners in the Chesapeake Bay region.
EPA regulations on TDMLs of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment in Chesapeake waterways are powerful tools for encouraging land use practices based on ecological science. But unequal pressures to adopt Best Management Practices have often left the agricultural community feeling unfairly blamed for nutrient pollution problems in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. On Monday afternoon, Kalla Kvalnes of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science will talk about outreach events engaging farmers and residents in rural Chesapeake Bay communities to better understand the stumbling blocks to adoption of Best Management Practices.
Ryal's colleague, Amy Teller, will present further data on the biochar project at a poster session on sustainable agriculture and forestry on Wednesday afternoon. Maya Almaraz, also of Brown University, will report on seasonal effects on nitrogen and nitrous oxide gas emissions from the experimental farm fields Ryal treated with different fertilizers during a Monday afternoon session on new paradigms in nutrient cycling in a variety of ecosystems.
OOS 42-7 Can biochar reduce nitrogen pollution from poultry manure? Assessing biochar's biogeochemical fate and policy opportunities in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
Rebecca Ryals, Brown University
Wednesday, August 12, 2015: 10:10 AM, rm 328 OOS 42-8 Is agroecology on the USDA radar? The Chesapeake Bay, a case study
Mari-Vaughn V. Johnson, USDA-NRCS
Wednesday, August 12, 2015: 10:30 AM, rm 328 COS 8-5 The Choptank Coastal SEES Project: Changing minds and attitudes in an atmosphere of mistrust and increasing environmental regulations
Kalla L. Kvalnes, Horn Point Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
Monday, August 10, 2015: 2:30 PM, rm 322 PS 56-161 The Choptank Coastal SEES Project: Biogeochemical monitoring at three spatial scales
Anne B. Gustafson, Horn Point Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
Wednesday, August 12, 2015: 4:30 PM-6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall PS 44-44 Biochar and compost: Recycling between Chesapeake poultry and corn production while mitigating nutrient leaching losses
Amy Teller, Brown University
Wednesday, August 12, 2015: 4:30 PM-6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall COS 3-5 Dinitrogen emissions from agricultural soils increase over the growing season.
Maya Almaraz, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University
Monday, August 10, 2015: 2:50 PM, rm 303
Revitalizing urban neighborhoods
Simple urban improvements like replacing the concrete of an empty lot with greenery have the potential to improve the health and happiness of neighborhood residents as well as the quality of the water draining from these urban surfaces, and ultimately into the bay.
The Parks & People Foundation in Baltimore has a long history of fostering partnerships between academics, government agencies, and citizens to improve the city's open spaces. On Sunday, August 9, Alan Berkowitz and Bess Caplan of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Christina Bradley from Parks & People, and Morgan Grove with the USDA Forest Service will co-lead a field trip on Sunday, August 9, to the site of an urban Long Term Ecological Research project investigating the connections between social and ecological revitalization in storm sewer watershed 263 (WS263), a "sewershed" in Baltimore encompassing 11 neighborhoods housing 28,214 people. The group will discuss approaches to environmental education while visiting bio-infiltration projects, lot renovations, and other green infrastructure features in WS263.
ESA's Applied Ecology Section will also be visiting parts of WS263 on Sunday for its annual Urban Bioblitz, approaching from the Middle Branch Trail on the Patapsco River. The group will observe the diversity of plants, birds, insects, and aquatic invertebrates resident in the watershed while discussing the land planning, management, and maintenance.
Improving the health of the Bay can only come about with active participation from residents of the watershed. Amina Mohamed worked with 20 students from environmental clubs at two high schools in the Anacostia and Patuxent River watersheds (part of the larger Chesapeake watershed) to better understand community attitudes about the health of their environment. Through the participatory program Photovoice, originally developed for public engagement in public health, students photographed local environmental issues, choosing 10 photos to further describe in brief narratives.
Mohamed analyzed the photo sets and texts for themes reflecting the perceptions and priorities of the student participants and their communities. Images of the Anacostia study area featured pollution and trash more prominently, while the Patuxent images indicated more community awareness of connections to the greater Bay region. She will present the results of her study in a poster session dedicated to ecological education on Friday morning.
FT 10 Green Infrastructure in a Revitalizing Dense Urban Neighborhood
Sunday, August 9, 2015: 9:45 AM-2:00 PM FT 9 Urban Bioblitz Along Sites of Baltimore's Upper Middle Branch and Watershed 263.
Sunday, August 9, 2015: 9:00 AM-3:00 PM PS 94-135 Visualizing nature: Engaging local youth in issues of stormwater and subwatersheds
Amina Mohamed, Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, University of Maryland
Friday, August 14, 2015: 8:30 AM-10:30 AM, Exhibit Hall
Other meeting sessions related to water quality in the Chesapeake watershed:
COS 3-3 Watershed missing N: Can biogenic N gas fluxes account for it?
Rebecca J. Fox, Horn Point Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
Monday, August 10, 2015: 2:10 PM, rm 303 COS 17-10 Long-term measures of predation and cannibalism in juvenile blue crabs.
Anson H. Hines, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Monday, August 10, 2015: 4:40 PM COS 9-5 Recovery of soil organic matter stocks from switchgrass plantings in agricultural landscapes
Margaret J. Pryatel, Biological Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic and State University
Monday, August 10, 2015: 2:50 PM, rm 323 PS 4-50 Habitat preference modelling for the endangered Northeastern Beach Tiger Beele, Cicindela dorsalis dorsalis: Implications for rising sea level
Nathan Evans, Biology, James Madison University
Monday, August 10, 2015: 4:30 PM-6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall PS 4-46 Role of feedback processes in estuarine submersed plant dynamics
Cassie Gurbisz, Horn Point Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
Monday, August 10, 2015: 4:30 PM-6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall PS 55-147 Artificial reef fish usage compared to natural reef in the Chesapeake Bay
Neill C. Baker, Stevenson University
Wednesday, August 12, 2015: 4:30 PM-6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall -Part of a poster session on restoration ecology. PS 104-242 Predicting oyster reef restoration success from juvenile oyster growth in the Chesapeake Bay
Keith D. Johnson, Stevenson University
Friday, August 14, 2015: 8:30 AM-10:30 AM, Exhibit Hall COS 94-9 Effects of shoreline hardening on waterbird community use: Influences of geography, scale, and season in the Chesapeake Bay
Diann Prosser, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
Wednesday, August 12, 2015: 4:20 PM, rm 349 COS 64-7 Responses of marsh plant biomass allocation to elevated CO2: A case study at Chesapeake Bay
Meng Lu, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, Md.
Wednesday, August 12, 2015: 10:10 AM, rm 322 OPS 5-12 Confluence network dynamics can create a spatial mosaic of predator interactions
Ryland Taylor, Biology, Kansas State University
Wednesday, August 12, 2015: 4:30 PM-6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall COS 111-4 Effects of legacy sediment removal on hydrology and biogeochemistry in a low order stream in Pennsylvania, USA
Paul Mayer, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Lab, Western Ecology Division
Thursday, August 13, 2015: 9:00 AM, rm 344 COS 129-7 Ecological engineering of surface water flow paths to improve ecosystem function
Joe Berg, Biohabitats, Inc.
Thursday, August 13, 2015: 3:40 PM, rm 343 PS 88-87 The perfect storm: Extreme weather and predators drive phase shift in dominant Chesapeake Bay bivalve
Cassandra N. Glaspie, Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Friday, August 14, 2015: 8:30 AM-10:30 AM Exhibit Hall Field Trips
FT 3 Canoe Trip: Natural and Cultural History of the Potomac River
Saturday, August 8, 2015: 8:00 AM-7:00 PM FT 5 From Land To Water: Grassland Restoration And Ecology Of The Chester River
Sunday, August 9, 2015: 7:00 AM-3:30 PM FT 11 Long Term Ecological Research Sites in Baltimore
Sunday, August 9, 2015: 10:15 AM-3:00 PM FT 12 Baltimore Harbor Boat Trip: Exploring an Urban Aquatic Ecosystem
Tuesday, August 11, 2015: 1:00 PM-6:00 PM FT 13 Battlefield Ecology
Wednesday, August 12, 2015: 7:00 AM-1:00 PM The complete conference program, including abstracts for oral and poster presentations, is available on the conference website.
INFORMATION:
The Ecological Society of America (ESA), founded in 1915, is the world's largest community of professional ecologists and a trusted source of ecological knowledge, committed to advancing the understanding of life on Earth. The 10,000 member Society publishes six journals and a membership bulletin and broadly shares ecological information through policy, media outreach, and education initiatives. The Society's Annual Meeting attracts 4,000 attendees and features the most recent advances in ecological science. Visit the ESA website at http://www.esa.org. END
