Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Workgroup Publications

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Chesapeake Bay Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV): A Third Technical Synthesis

Chesapeake Bay is one of the most widely studied estuaries in the world, with extensive research focused on one of the Bay’s most important habitats: submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV). SAV provides a myriad of ecosystem services, from nursery grounds and habitat for ecologically and economically important fish and invertebrates, to sediment stabilization and shoreline erosion control, to carbon sequestration. While the first two SAV Technical Syntheses (published in 1992 and 2000) focused primarily on the identification, development, and refinement of five specific and measurable habitat requirements that limit SAV growth, including light attenuation, chlorophyll a, total suspended solids, dissolved inorganic nitrogen and dissolved inorganic phosphorus, this third SAV Technical Synthesis reviews advancements in our knowledge and understanding of SAV ecosystem dynamics as they relate to SAV habitat requirements, but also genetics, the effects of land-use and shoreline alterations on SAV, climate change impacts, and ecosystem services and their potential monetary value. New information and analyses are reviewed in the context of restoration and management implications and suggest that managers and policy makers must maintain or strengthen protection to SAV and must continue to improve water quality and clarity in the Chesapeake Bay in hopes of counterbalancing the impacts of climate change and increased pressures from a growing watershed population.

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