Pollution history of the Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is a complex environmental system made up of dynamic geological and biological processes influenced by human activities. Effective stewardship of the Bay's resources requires an understanding of processes governing estuarine natural dynamics in order to assess and regulate the extent of human influences. This requires examining temporal dynamics preserved in the sedimentary record in order to correlate human activities with observed historic changes. This project is part of the NOAA Status and Trends program, the mission of which is to examine the historical record, focusing on the Bay system. Human impact is assessed by measuring a wide range of chemical species, biological markers, and physical parameters, and comparing the state of these parameters with the period of time when human influence was minimal.