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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #320105
Title: The Lower Chesapeake Bay LTAR: A coastal urban-agricultural region

Author
item McCarty, Gregory
item Alfieri, Joseph
item Cavigelli, Michel
item Cosh, Michael
item Hapeman, Cathleen
item Kustas, William - Bill
item Maul, Jude
item Mirsky, Steven
item Pooler, Margaret
item Sadeghi, Ali
item Schomberg, Harry
item Timlin, Dennis

Submitted to: Geological Society of America Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/16/2015
Publication Date: 12/14/2015
Citation: Mccarty, G.W., Alfieri, J.G., Cavigelli, M.A., Cosh, M.H., Hapeman, C.J., Kustas, W.P., Maul, J.E., Mirsky, S.B., Pooler, M.R., Sadeghi, A.M., Schomberg, H.H., Timlin, D.J. 2015. The Lower Chesapeake Bay LTAR: A coastal urban-agricultural region. Geological Society of America Meeting. CDROM.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The Chesapeake Bay, located in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S., is the largest estuary in North America. The watershed area includes six states from New York to Virginia and is nearly 167,000 km2 in size with more than 150 rivers and streams entering the 300-km Bay main stem. Forested and agricultural lands make up 58 and 22 percent of the land use, respectively. Nearly 9 percent is urban and suburban use, and the watershed is home to over 17 million people. However, the population is expected to reach 19 million by 2025, raising the potential for conflict between the agricultural and urban communities over land and water use and in protecting natural resources, especially in the lower portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The Lower Chesapeake Bay study area, part of the USDA-ARS Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) network, will provide much-needed data to support decisions at this critical agriculture-urban interface. Current long-term projects seek to assess the economic, production, and environmental performance of conventional and organic cropping systems and to evaluate the resilience of these systems to climate change. Large-scale studies are being conducted to examine the effects of land-use and landscape characteristics on ecosystem services and on energy, water, nutrient, carbon, and pest dynamics within watersheds. New in-situ measurement and remote sensor technologies are being considered with the expectancy that the data streams will be available on-line and for use in modeling. Results and outcomes of these research efforts will greatly benefit the national LTAR network and will be applicable to other US coastal urban-agricultural regions.