Chesapeake Bay
Environmental Effects Studies

Five Year Strategy

The Chesapeake Bay Environmental Effect Committee (CBEEC), with input from scientists and managers, developed a new five year strategy for research on the fate and effects of chemical contaminants in the Chesapeake. The five-year strategy is available as an Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) file:

• Making the Link Between Chemical Contamination and Living Resources in Chesapeake Bay:
  A Focused Research Strategy

The Adobe Acrobat Reader is free (please visit Adobe Acrobat for more details).

Background Information

Since 1985, the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Effects Committee (CBEEC) has overseen systemwide research on the Chesapeake Bay. The research has been funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Chesapeake Bay Office, through the Sea Grant programs of Maryland and Virginia. The first phase of this research focused on oxygen processes in the Bay, with an emphasis on how nutrient loads and other factors affect levels of oxygen found in the Bay, as well as what impacts these changes have on the health of the Bay ecosystem. Much of that work is summarized in a brief synthesis report, "Dissolved Oxygen in the Chesapeake Bay: A Scientific Consensus," and in a book entitled, Oxygen Dynamics in the Chesapeake Bay. Both publications are available from Maryland Sea Grant.

In 1990, with additional funds provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, CBEEC turned its attention to contaminants (or "toxics") in the Bay, employing the same systemwide approach used in addressing the nutrient/oxygen issue. Summaries of this research are presented in "Chesapeake Bay Environmental Effects Studies, Toxics Research Program 1994 Workshop Report," and in a synthesis document, "Chemical Contamination in the Chesapeake Bay: A Synthesis of Research to Date and Future Research Directions" (1997). These publications are available from Maryland and Virginia Sea Grant and from the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office.

The Sea Grant approach is to tap research talent from many sources, through a competitive peer review process. As a result, researchers active in CBEEC toxics program come from a number of institutions in the Bay region, including the University System of Maryland, the College of William and Mary, the Academy of Natural Sciences Estuarine Research Center, the Old Dominion University and others.