Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) Workgroup

The Chesapeake Bay Shallow Water Habitat Sentinel Site Program will monitor climate impacts on the functional value of shallow water habitats in the Chesapeake Bay as well as the effectiveness of management measures taken by the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership beyond 2025.

The January 2025 SAV Mitigation and Monitoring Workshop produced guidance that clarifies expectations for minimizing the impact of near-shore activities on SAV, and ensuring compensatory mitigation is meaningful, consistent across jurisdictions and designed for the greatest chance of ecological success.

Using a novel prioritization framework and machine learning models trained on environmental and BMP data, this project explores how BMPs influence the health of underwater grasses, and highlights those practices that are most effective at promoting SAV persistence. 

This project modeled the impact of climate change on underwater grasses in the Chesapeake Bay.

This synthesis of multiple long-term datasets determined the influence of human populations on the distribution of submerged aquatic vegetation and whether management actions implemented by the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership have benefited SAV habitat.