The CBIEA will ultimately be a comprehensive assessment of key ecosystem components
and processes in the Chesapeake Bay. This will be achieved by using the Chesapeake
Bay Program (CBP) data bases and other existing literature to map and assess benthic
and pelagic habitats, water quality, species' distribution and habitat requirements,
and determine the strength of coupling between habitats and living marine resources.
Once the status of these components is defined, the next step will be to model the
effects of ecosystem stressors on fishable waters, to enable development of ecological
forecasts under various management scenarios. Through the assessment process, we
plan to synthesize and organize input data sets, conduct quantitative analyses,
and develop ecological forecast models to predict trends for level of fishable waters
in both space and time within Chesapeake Bay tidal waters.
The Cooperative Oxford Laboratory (COL) is spearheading this project with the help
from other National Centers for Coastal and Oceans Sciences (NCCOS) partners and
the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MD DNR).
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