CHESAPEAKE BAY NOTES

Estuary:

Body of water where fresh and salt water mixes

Largest of the 130 estuaries in the United States

Size of the Chesapeake Bay:

Virginia

Maryland

Pennsylvania

DE

NJ

200 miles in length

3.4 miles to 25 miles wide

Volume: 15 Trillion Gallons

Depth Range: 0-174 feetAverage Depth: 21 feet

11,684 miles of shoreline

Watershed:

An area of land that drains to a particular river, lake, bay or other body of water

Bay Creation - Meteor

A meteor crashed, setting the stage for the bay to be formed

The resultant crater is called the Exmore Crater

Bay Creation - Glaciers

The movement and melting of the glacier during the last ice age caused the creation of the streams and rivers that make up the Chesapeake Bay

Salinity of the Bay:

Salinity of the bay increases as you head south

Freshwater comes in from the rivers so the top is essentially freshwater

Incre

asin

g

Salin

ity

Composition of Water:

Sources of dissolved materials: Decomposition of dead organisms Live organisms releasing compounds

directly Organic and inorganic materials enter

through tributaries

Dissolved Gases:

Dissolved oxygen is affected by temperature and salinity

Dissolved carbon dioxide is necessary for plants and comes from respiration of organisms

Nitrogen and phosphorus are also necessary for organisms, however, due to run-off they can be in poisonous concentrations

Food Web:

Most energy and largest volume of organisms found at the bottom

Less and less energy is transferred through each trophic level because it is used or lost as heat

Contaminants ingested by each level get passed along in increasing amounts through the food web