A Tale of Two Bays

Not all estuaries are created equal. While Chesapeake Bay has shown itself to be exquisitely sensitive to nutrient pollution, shifting into a degraded state that has proven difficult to reverse, San Francisco Bay has proven resilient to nutrient loading...until now. Today, it may be poised on the cusp of dramatic change. 

In this briefing, scientists Scott Nixon, Walter Boynton, and Jim Cloern will address how the “long view” can help evaluate how well specific management decisions might work. This deep understanding of how an ecosystem might respond to management action can guide effective restoration, maximize the “bang for buck” on investments, and avoid negative consequences along the way. 

Dr. Scott Nixon, University of Rhode Island, will describe what makes estuaries unique – geography, physics, biology  and history – and how understanding those differences can shape the most effective approaches to management.

Dr. Walter R. Boynton, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, will speak to the role of long-term monitoring data in understanding the status, trends, and impact of management decisions in Chesapeake Bay.

Dr. James Cloern, U.S. Geological Survey, will talk about why San Francisco Bay responds differently to nutrient pollution than the Chesapeake and what this means for policy and management of this ecosystem that lies at the heart of one of the biggest economies in the nation.