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Science News
Scientists Join Forces for Regional Fisheries Research
 It’s an act of nature that goes largely
unnoticed. Every year, larval fish — barely visible to the naked
eye — leave their birthplace in the offshore Atlantic and make
their way into the waters of the Delaware and Chesapeake bays. Survivors
of the journey find food and shelter in the bays’ nursery areas
and ultimately grow to become important parts of the ecosystem. Not
to mention its recreational and commercial fisheries.
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Study of Algae’s Appetite May Help Predict Harmful Blooms in the Bay
 Biologist Allen Place envisions a day when he can predict the future —
when he can forecast algae blooms in the Chesapeake Bay before they
happen. A new study by Place and his colleagues at the University of
Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI) may take this idea one step
closer to reality.
Like a lot of the best scientific research, the focus of Place’s decade-long work with harmful algae came about by happenstance.
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Path to Bay Recovery May Cross Unexpected Thresholds, Report Finds
 If restoration efforts in the Chesapeake Bay succeed in dropping
nutrient loads to target levels, scientists and managers should expect
the Bay to respond in unexpected ways, according to a new report
released today by the Chesapeake Bay Program Science and Technical
Advisory Committee (STAC) and Maryland Sea Grant.
The Bay may experience threshold-type responses, researchers say.
Improved water clarity, for example, might cause recovery to occur in a
sudden burst. Underwater grasses could flourish and help to jumpstart
key processes. Identifying such thresholds for recovery could help
steer resources in a targeted manner –– towards or away from specific
outcomes –– and help to better manage public expectations for the Bay’s
response as nutrient loads decline, according to scientists.
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From Bay to Biofuel: Researcher Discovers How a Bacterium Can Help Make Ethanol
 Take a scientist with a sense of wonder and invest in his ideas. Sometimes those discoveries will soar.
That is the story of microbiologist Ronald Weiner, who along with
colleague Steven Hutcheson, announced this week that their research
findings will enable a University of Maryland spin off company,
Zymetis, to use a bacterium from the Chesapeake Bay to generate
ethanol, a popularly-touted source of alternative fuel.
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Future Gazing for the Eastern Shore
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Photo by Skip Brown
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Bigger roads and faster highways have made isolation a thing of the past for the Eastern Shore, also called the Delmarva Peninsula because it spans the states of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. Every day thousands of people cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to reach what is now one of the fastest growing regions in the Chesapeake watershed. It’s not unusual to see clusters of homes on farm fields, big-box stores where pine forests once stood. Increasingly, the Eastern Shore is considered not only a get-away destination, but a permanent home. And nearly all indications point to further growth in the future.
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