Chesapeake Bay

1
Chesapeake Bay
2
(No Transcript)
3
Largest estuary in the United States
4
Widely Known

• Fishing Industry of
• Blue Crab
• Oysters
• Clams
• Striped Bass
• No other American estuary has a higher yield

5
The Bay Is Not Healthy

• Notice the green throughout the bay.

6
Causes of algal blooms

• Excess nutrients in the water leads to an
  explosion of algae
• the availability of nitrogen is no longer a
  limiting factor holding their growth in check.

7
What causes the excess nutrients?

• Rivers and tributaries are bringing the nutrients
  to the Chesapeake Bay.
• Farming
• Fertilizers
• Animal waste 650 million lbs of chicken manure
  each year in just MD.
• Sewage

8
The problem of excess nutrients and algae

• Algae die ? detritus
• Detritus ? decomposed by microbes
• Microbes explode
• They have a lot of detritus to eat
• Microbes use oxygen
• Use up the oxygen in the water. (Now low
  dissolved oxygen)
• Less oxygen ? kills fish and other organisms that
  need the oxygen to live
• Dead zone

Fish kill caused by nutrient build-up, Nanticoke
River, Chesapeake Bay, 1992