Welcome to the Chesapeake Community Research Symposium 2024!

The Chesapeake Community Modeling Program will convene the 2024 edition of our biennial symposium June 10-12, 2024 in Annapolis, Maryland and online. The theme of the 2024 symposium is Chesapeake Bay Restoration: Managing Water Quality for Living Resources in a Changing Climate.

Scope and Aims

Significant progress has been made toward restoring Chesapeake Bay water quality and living resources. However, restoration efforts face significant challenges as we enter the third decade of the 21st century. Perhaps the biggest challenge is maintaining progress in the face of a changing natural and human environment. Global warming and sea level rise are affecting temperature, watershed dynamics, groundwater processes, estuarine hydrodynamics, biogeochemistry, and ecology. In addition, increasing human population in the watershed continues to add stressors that will interact with the effects of climate change and sea level rise. There is also a growing awareness that we need to consider the effects that changing environmental conditions and restoration efforts have on higher trophic levels and ecosystem services.

Background

By bringing together managers, scientists, and stakeholders for a series of plenary talks, panel discussions, and special sessions, the 2024 Chesapeake Community Research Symposium will not only highlight the progress that has been made toward restoring the Chesapeake Bay and enhancing coastal community resilience, but will also address future challenges to maintaining this progress in the face of our changing human and natural environment.

Special Sessions

There will be 16 special sessions at the 2024 Chesapeake Community Research Symposium. Click on each session see the session description and presentation titles, authors, and abstracts.

Session 4: Coupled human-natural systems in Chesapeake Bay

Session 6: Understanding the Landscape to Better Manage and Protect Aquatic Ecosystems

Session 7: River Corridor Sciences and Management

Session 8: Water-quality patterns and trends in the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed: I. Innovative monitoring techniques and modeling tools

Session 9: Water-quality patterns and trends in the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed: II. Novel analysis and scientific communication approaches to inform management

Session 10: Applications of remote sensing for water quality management

Session 11: Tackling Ecosystem-Level Impacts from Rising Water Temperatures in the Tidal Waters of Chesapeake Bay

Session 14: Modern Research Innovations Harnessing Big Data, Machine Learning, and Remote Sensing for Advanced Estuarine Ecosystem Modeling and Monitoring

Session 16: Future Scenarios for Agriculture and Environmental Outcomes in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Session 17: Co-designing solutions to support community resilience in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Session 18: Examining Chesapeake Climate Change Impacts With Advances in Monitoring, Assessment Analyses, and Fine Scale Models

Session 19: Carbon cycling in Chesapeake Bay

Session 20: Harmful Algal Blooms impeding restoration in the Chesapeake Bay watershed: From the Shenandoah River to tidal Freshwater to Estuarine Waters

Session 22: How do we achieve Fishable, Swimmable Urban Waters?

Session 23: General: Estuarine and Watershed Processes

Session 24: Poster session

Symposium Schedule

Click on the image below to view the daily schedules for CCRS, including plenary speakers, panel topics, and special session presentations.

Click on the image below to view the CCRS schedule at a glance.

Explore Annapolis

Annapolis, Maryland has numerous restaurants and bars for you to enjoy.

We have reserved a private room on Tuesday, June 11th from 5pm to 9pm at Level, a small plates lounge in downtown Annapolis (69 West St, Annapolis, MD 21401). The room can accommodate up to 30 guests on a first-come, first-served basis. Each guest will be responsible for paying for their own food and drink.

GUARDIAN AWARD

History:

The “Sellner Chesapeake Guardian Award” was first presented to Kevin Sellner at the 2014 Chesapeake Modeling Symposium for “Exceptional Service Dedicated to the Advancement of Community Modeling in the Chesapeake Bay Region”. The CCMP has established this award in Sellner’s honor in appreciation for his more than 30 years of research, guidance and service to the Chesapeake Bay research, management and policy maker communities. Subsequent awards have been given to Gary Shenk, Carl Cerco, Marjorie Friedrichs, and Karl Blankenship.

This is a standing award presented every 2 years. The sixth awardee will be recognized at the Chesapeake Community Research Symposium in June, 2024.

Nominations:

Nominations for the 2024 Guardian Award have closed. In keeping with the evolution of the Chesapeake Community Research Symposium toward a broader scope, the award will be made based on contributions to management-relevant science generally.

Individuals nominated should have made significant and selfless contributions to the research, management and policy maker communities in Chesapeake Bay and/or its watershed. The nominee should have demonstrated sustained contributions. A worthy recipient might also be someone who has influenced Chesapeake research and / or management via teaching and training. Efforts in support of community and open source databases and models are also valued.

Selection:

A subcommittee of the CCMP has evaluated the nominations and selected the award recipient. The awardee will be announced March/April 2024.

Questions?

For questions about the 2024 Chesapeake Community Research Symposium, please contact Allison Burbach (allison@greenfinstudio.com).