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School children returning young American Shad to the Potomac River |
ICPRB's Living Resources Section works to strengthen the ecological understanding of the Potomac River's diverse populations of aquatic animals and plants. In partnerships with a wide range of agencies, the Living Resources Section provides technical information and characterization of diverse Potomac watershed biological communities, as well as involvement in numerous restoration projects.
Shad Restoration
Sometimes a population need a little help when it's down. American shad stocks in particular had remained depressed in the
Potomac River, despite significant improvements in water quality
made over the last several decades and a river harvest moratorium
that has been in effect since 1982. ICPRB has spearheaded a collaborative effort to stock American shad
that began in 1995 and was designed to imprint shad to the historic spawning
and nursery waters and help rebuild Potomac River shad stocks. As a part of this project ICPRB has been collecting fertilized shad roe to be raised in fish hatcheries, stocking hatchery fingerlings in historic spawning and nursery areas, and monitoring survival of the year classes. Through this effort shad populations have begun to recover in the Potomac River.
Tidal Projects
The Potomac River has the second largest flow of fresh water to the Chesapeake Bay behind the Susquehenna River. Because of its importance to the Chesapeake, the ICPRB works closely with the EPA's Chesapeake Bay Program in focusing on its tidal waters. In the last two years, ICPRB has lead a team of researchers to set water quality goals for the Bay using Plankton as indicator species. Additionally ICPRB is an active member of the Bay Program's Chlorophyll Criteria Team which is attempting to set water clarity and dissolved oxygen goals for the Chesapeake to a level that reduces harmfull chlorophyll-a "blooms". ICPRB scientists are performing many of the analyses used by the group to develop the these water quality standards.
The Region's Scientists Investigate Lower Potomac Fish Kill-June 2006
List of Freshwater Fishes in the Potomac
Additional Reading:
Buchanan*, C., R. V. Lacouture, H. G. Marshall, M. Olson, and J. Johnson. 2005. Phytoplankton reference communities for Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries. Estuaries 28(1):138-159. Abstract Available in PDF. For a full copy of the article, contact Claire Buchanan.
Lacouture, R. V.*, J. M. Johnson, C. Buchanan, and H. G. Marshall. 2006. Phytoplankton Index of Biotic Integrity for Chesapeake Bay and its Tidal Tributaries. Estuaries. In press. Abstract Available in PDF. For a full copy of the article, contact Richard Lacouture.
Buchanan, C. January 2006. "A restoration goal for Chesapeake Bay phytoplankton communities." A white paper prepared for the Chesapeake Bay Program Living Resources Subcommittee, Annapolis, MD.
Non-Tidal Assessments
In the non-tidal Potomac, ICPRB focuses on aiding the its member jursidictions in assessing the biological conditions of their rivers and streams and in integrating the data collected from various monitoring sources in the Potomac basin.
Biological Stream Assessments - In cooperation with state agencies, ICPRB has been working to monitor the biological conditions of targeted areas of the Potomac basin. The efforts made by ICPRB scientists help the states determine the health of their streams to aid in targeting restoration and protection efforts.
Integrated Basinwide Assessments - Many resource management programs conduct biological monitoring to assess the health of aquatic communities in the Potomac basin's non-tidal streams. Combining diverse data collected by different Potomac jurisdictions and producing regional or watershed-level assessments present unique challenges. ICPRB is working to overcome these challenges. It has developed decision rules for merging and interpreting disparate data sets. It is integrating the benthic macroinvertebrate, habitat, and water chemistry data collected by the different jurisdictions and developing basinwide indexes of stream health.
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