Session Lead: Julie Reichert-Nguyen (NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office)

Co-Lead(s): Jamileh Soueidan (NOAA), Bruce Vogt (NOAA)

Session Format: Oral Presentations

Session Description: 

Tidal water temperatures are rising in the Chesapeake Bay as surface air temperatures increase with global climate change. This leads to various ecosystem-level impacts, including changes in the range and abundance of key Bay fish, shellfish, and submerged aquatic vegetation species (SAV). These ecosystem-wide changes will affect progress towards the water quality, habitat, and living resource goals in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. The Chesapeake Bay Program’s Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC), in collaboration with the Climate Resiliency Workgroup and other technical experts throughout the partnership’s water quality, sustainable fisheries, and habitat goal implementation teams, released the 2023 workshop report, “Rising Watershed and Bay Water Temperatures–Ecological Implications and Management Responses.” This report identifies management implications and provides recommendations related to monitoring, modeling, research, and collective action to prepare for and adapt to the effects of rising water temperatures on the Bay’s ecosystem.

Recommendations in the report focused on several themes to build resilience to the effects of rising water temperatures on living resources in tidal waters, including:

  • promoting ecosystem-based management by improving knowledge on water quality and environmental change thresholds for species and habitats,
  • maximizing nearshore habitat restoration and protection and watershed best management practice strategies to minimize living resource impacts at a local-scale,
  • increasing understanding of extreme stressors (e.g., marine heat waves) on living resources (e.g., striped bass, oysters, blue crabs, eelgrass) and habitats (e.g., oyster reefs, SAV),
  • minimizing other stressors (e.g., fishing pressure, low dissolved oxygen, increased sediment loads, sea level rise) to protect habitat and lessen overall stress on vulnerable living resources, and
  • assessing and preparing for future water temperature conditions and the associated ecosystem changes through research and communication efforts with stakeholders.

This session invites research on the above tidal recommendation topics. Talks can range from assessing water quality thresholds and habitat suitability for fish, benthic organisms, and SAV to climate change modeling or model data synthesis related to habitat, living resource response, and/or species community shifts. We welcome presentations on watershed or habitat strategies, particularly research related to mitigating increasing water temperatures in the nearshore tidal waters, reducing other stressors that affect living resources in tidal waters, providing thermal refugia, or protecting key fish-related habitats (e.g., marshes, oyster reefs, SAV). We also encourage presentations on social science research, including communication strategies or behavior change research related to rising water temperature effects on fisheries and habitats or implementation of actions to adapt to changing climate conditions.

Presentations (abstracts):

  1. Julie Reichert-Nguyen, Jamileh Soueidan, Bruce Vogt, Brooke Landry: Summary of the Tidal Waters Recommendations from the Rising Water Temperature STAC Workshop Report
  2. Jamileh Soueidan, Julie Reichert-Nguyen, Ronald Vogel, Bruce Vogt: Linking Marine Heatwave Events to Living Resource Considerations to Indicate Potential Impacts to Fisheries
  3. Nathan P. Shunk, Piero L.F. Mazzini, Ryan K. Walter, Kyle E. Hinson, Marjorie A.M. Friedrichs: Vertical Structure of Marine Heatwaves in Chesapeake Bay
  4. Michael O’Brien, Ashlee Horne, Ian Park, Chuck Stence, David Secor: Impacts on Atlantic sturgeon spawning phenology following heat waves and large storms
  5. Jim Uphoff: Spawning season temperature conditions associated with the recent declines in year-class success of Striped Bass in Maryland spawning areas
  6. Andrew G. Keppel, Tom Parham, Jim Uphoff, Renee Karrh: Changes in summer habitat conditions for resident Chesapeake Bay striped bass determined from interpolated historic water quality data
  7. Ron Vogel, Kim Couranz: Exploring the Effects of Anomalous Conditions in Tidal Water Column Habitat on Chesapeake Bay Species via Seasonal Summaries
  8. Christopher J. Patrick, Marc Hensel, David Wilcox, Jon Lefcheck, Brooke Landrey: Outlook Hazy, Please Try Again: Contrasting futures of Chesapeake SAV under different climate and nutrient management scenarios
  9. Amanda Bevans: Modeling the Effects of Habitat Changes in the York River Ecosystem, Chesapeake Bay