Coupling Water Quality and Upper Trophic Level Models for Chesapeake Bay: A Planning Workshop
- Published:
- March 1, 2005
- Originator:
- Chesapeake Bay Program
Recent publications of the Chesapeake 2000 agreement (C2K) and the Fisheries Ecosystem Plan reflect the growing interest in integrated management of water quality and fisheries. Together, these two directives call for a combination of: 1) ecosystem-based fisheries, 2) water quality improvements to restore key fish habitats, and 3) management of populations at lower tropic levels for water quality benefits. The US EPA Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) has invested in a variety of numerical modeling approaches to address issues related to management of the estuary. The Chesapeake Bay Water Quality Model (CBWQM) has been a primary tool used simulate estuarine ecosystem repnses to alternative nutrient and sediment watershed management policies. Although this movel includes variable related to food supply at lower trophic levels (phytoplankton, zooplankton. benthic macrofauna) and related to benthic habitat conditions (dissolved oxygen, water clarity, seagrass), it does not simulate fish populations. The NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office (NCBO) has sponsored development of a fisheries-oriented tropic network movel for the Bay using a widely applied software package (Ecopath with Ecosim, or EwE).