Technical Syntheses and Reports

Chesapeake Bay SAV Habitat Requirements and Restoration Targets: A Technical Synthesis (1992)

This first SAV Technical Syntheses focused primarily on the identification and development of five specific and measurable habitat requirements that limit SAV growth, including light attenuation, chlorophyll a, total suspended solids, dissolved inorganic nitrogen and dissolved inorganic phosphorus. Available for download here.

Chesapeake Bay SAV: A Second Technical Synthesis (2000)

This second SAV Technical Syntheses focused primarily on the refinement of five specific and measurable habitat requirements that limit SAV growth, including light attenuation, chlorophyll a, total suspended solids, dissolved inorganic nitrogen and dissolved inorganic phosphorus. Available for download here.

Chesapeake Bay Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV): A Third Technical Synthesis (2016)

While the first two SAV Technical Syntheses (published in 1992 and 2000) focused primarily on the identification, development, and refinement of five specific and measurable habitat requirements that limit SAV growth, including light attenuation, chlorophyll a, total suspended solids, dissolved inorganic nitrogen and dissolved inorganic phosphorus, this third SAV Technical Synthesis reviews advancements in our knowledge and understanding of SAV ecosystem dynamics as they relate to SAV habitat requirements, but also genetics, the effects of land-use and shoreline alterations on SAV, climate change impacts, and ecosystem services and their potential monetary value. New information and analyses are reviewed in the context of restoration and management implications and suggest that managers and policymakers must maintain or strengthen protection to SAV and must continue to improve water quality and clarity in the Chesapeake Bay in hopes of counterbalancing the impacts of climate change and increased pressures from a growing watershed population. Available for download here.

Rising Watershed and Bay Water Temperatures— Ecological Implications and Management Responses

Increases in water temperature have significant ecological implications for Bay and watershed natural resources and could undermine progress toward Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) partnership goals for fisheries management, habitat restoration, water quality improvements, and protecting healthy watersheds. This STAC workshop examined current information on drivers and effects of rising water temperatures and sought answers to a critical question: what might the CBP partnership do now–within the scope of its current goals, policies and programs–to actively prevent, mitigate or adapt to some of the adverse consequences. Adapting to new water temperature conditions will have effects across the partnership. To read more about this workshop and download the report, which includes a full appendix chapter on temperature impacts to Chesapeake Bay SAV (page G-1), click here.