A new look at the history of water quality in the Chesapeake Bay sheds light on how the estuary has responded to nutrient reduction efforts and why improvements have remained a challenge.

Researchers from the Chesapeake Bay Program, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, University of Michigan and U.S. Geological Survey announced today that they are predicting this summer’s dead zone to be smaller than the longterm average taken between 1985 and 2021. This is due to the below average amount of water entering the Bay from the watershed’s tributaries this past spring, as well as decreased nutrient and sediment pollution from jurisdictions within the watershed.