Home to more than 18 million people and 3,600 species of plants and animals, the Chesapeake Bay watershed is truly an extraordinary place. The Chesapeake Bay watershed, home to more than 18 million people and 3,600 species of plants and animals, is truly an extraordinary place. The bay's watershed, which spans six states and the District of Columbia, never ceases to amaze with its rich history, vital economic importance and astounding beauty. The following are just a sample of some of the impressive facts and figures about our wonderful watershed.
The bay is the largest estuary in the United States and the third largest in the world. It is approximately 200 miles long and contains more than 18 trillion gallons of water, part of the Atlantic Ocean and part of the 150 streams, streams and rivers that flow into its watershed. This mix of fresh and salt water supports more than 2,700 species of plants and animals. The Chesapeake Bay ecosystem affects the quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat.
Its wetlands protect communities from extreme weather events, such as erosion, floods and storm surges. And the trees that extend from the shores of the bay and the forests refresh our communities. As an interconnected system, the health of the Bay Area affects the health of regions around the world, including the people who live in them. Chesapeake Bay is a very large and complex ecosystem with many types of wildlife habitats, including forests, wetlands, rivers, and the bay's own estuary.
The bay is home to more than 3,600 species of plants and animals, including more than 300 species of fish and 2,700 types of plants. The bay contains about 18 trillion gallons of water. That amount of water would fill more than fifty billion bathtubs to the brim. Some may not even have their own boats, let alone win regattas, but they are inexorably drawn to Chesapeake Bay.
Growing concern about pollution also led the Maryland and Virginia legislatures to establish the Chesapeake Bay Commission, an advisory body, in 1980. Air temperatures in most places in the Chesapeake Bay Basin have increased over the past century. We administer programs designed to increase environmental literacy for students in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Over the past 30 years, the average water temperature in Chesapeake Bay has increased by 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit).
Response of a benthic suspension feeder (Crassostrea virginica Gmelin) to three centuries of anthropogenic eutrophication in Chesapeake Bay. To view the final WIP of Phase III and to learn more about the public comment period, visit the DEQ Chesapeake Bay TMDL's Phase III Watershed Implementation Plan webpage. Providing area residents with the information and tools they need to make good decisions about caring for the Chesapeake is key to maintaining a healthy bay. The Chesapeake Bay watershed has been heavily affected by natural forces such as erosion, tides, and a history of hurricanes and other storms.
Individual, population, and ecosystem effects of hypoxia in a dominant benthic bivalve in Chesapeake Bay. Therefore, as the bay warms, hypoxia may last longer in each summer season in the bay's deep central channel. Concern about the increasing discovery of pollution problems in the bays and the institutional challenges posed by organizing bay restoration programs in a large geographical area led Congress to order the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assume a greater role in studying the scientific and technical aspects of the problems, beginning in the late 1970s. Increase the number and diversity of local citizen and local government managers who actively support and carry out conservation and restoration activities that achieve healthy local streams and rivers and a vibrant Chesapeake Bay. I planned to spend my days sailing, eating as many blue crabs from Chesapeake Bay as possible and studying a little about the locals on the East Coast.
NOAA manages a set of observation buoys, the Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System, which tracks water quality data and meteorological and oceanographic conditions.