Maryland Sea Grant Announces New Projects to Study Water Quality, Fisheries

February 19, 2014
Photo by Cheryl Nemazie

Maryland Sea Grant has awarded grants to scientists at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science for studies that could help improve and sustain the Chesapeake Bay’s water quality and fisheries. The two-year awards will support research on watershed restoration; blue crab and menhaden fisheries; and nutrient and sediment dynamics in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. The projects were selected through a peer-reviewed competition.

These project topics include:

Sediment and nutrient transport in the upper Chesapeake Bay:

Since the 1930s, sediments and nutrients traveling down the Susquehanna River – the Bay’s largest tributary – have collected behind the Conowingo Dam, upriver from the Chesapeake Bay. However, as the dam approaches its capacity to store such material, sediment and nutrient loads from the river into the Bay may increase. In a set of paired studies, researchers will receive funding to study how the Susquehanna Flats eelgrass bed in the upper Bay, downstream from the dam, affects and controls the transformation of nutrients and transport of sediments in the Bay.

Investigators: Sediments – Lawrence Sanford and Cindy Palinkas, UMCES Horn Point Laboratory as well as Richard Ortt Jr., Maryland Geological Survey; Nutrients – Michael Kemp and Jeffrey Cornwell, UMCES Horn Point Laboratory

Using genetics to study stream ecology

Recent advances in genetic sequencing have allowed scientists to rapidly assess the diversity of microbes (such as bacteria) in nature. Working with the Maryland Biological Stream Survey, researchers will examine the current state of microbial diversity in Maryland streams and how this new information can contribute to understanding stream conditions, which are now studied in part through fish and invertebrate sampling.

Investigators: Stephen Keller and Robert Hildebrand, UMCES Appalachian Laboratory; Alyson Santoro, UMCES Horn Point Laboratory

Menhaden population dynamics: 

Menhaden are an important commercial fishery and serve as prey for many marine predators and game fish throughout the Chesapeake Bay. However, menhaden populations have decreased over the past 40 years. This study will look at historical mark-and-recapture data to assess how the populations have changed over time and what that means for current populations.

Investigators: Michael Wilberg and Thomas Miller, UMCES Chesapeake Biological Laboratory; Amy Schueller and Joseph Smith, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Beaufort Laboratory

Maryland Sea Grant awards grants like these once every two years. Funding for this new group of projects is part of a cooperative agreement (NA14OAR 4170090) recently awarded to Maryland Sea Grant by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant Office. In addition to research projects, these funds will support research fellowships for graduate students as well as a portion of Maryland Sea Grant’s extension, education, and outreach activities across the state.

Maryland Sea Grant supports innovative marine research, education, and public outreach, primarily about the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, to support a sustainable coastal environment and economy. Past research studies funded by Maryland Sea Grant have made significant, positive impacts on efforts to improve Maryland's environment and economy. We are jointly funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the State of Maryland.

For more information about these new research projects, contact Michael Allen, Ph.D, Assistant Director for Research at Maryland Sea Grant.