BALTIMORE, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- The water quality of Chesapeake Bay is improving through efforts to reduce the flow of fertilizers, animal waste and other pollutants, U.S. researchers said.
A team of researchers from the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science said an analysis of bay water quality records from the past 60 years show the size of mid- to late-summer oxygen-starved "dead zones," where plants and water animals cannot live, has been declining since the 1980s, when a concerted effort to cut nutrient pollution was initiated through the federal Chesapeake Bay Program.
The findings are published in the current issue of Estuaries and Coasts
Don Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, said continuing nutrient reduction "remains critically important for achieving bay restoration goals."
The bay's health deteriorated during much of the 20th century as heavy spring rains flushed algae-promoting nitrogen and phosphorus into the Susquehanna River and other waterways that empty into the Chesapeake.
Concerns about an early summer jump in dead zones in recent years appears to be linked to climate forces, not the runoff of pollutants, researchers said Friday in a release.
