Chesapeake Bay Research Paper

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Chesapeake Bay is one of the largest fresh/salt water estuary in the United States. The Chesapeake Bay ranges from Havre de Grace Maryland, to VA Beach, VA. The range of the width is from four miles in Maryland to thirty miles in Virginia. Chesapeake Bay may appear deep but it is actually not at all. The average depth is about 21 feet. Though there is a few deep channels in the bay. Some can be as deep as on hundred feet give or take a few feet. The Chesapeake Bay has over ten thousand tributaries, which is more than the west coast of the United States. Grasses that grow underneath the bays surface or above shallow parts of the Chesapeake Bay is also known as submerged aquatic vegetation or SAV. Creeks, river, and streams around the bay are a major part of the Bays ecosystem. These things provide the wildlife with food, and add oxygen to the water. They also take nutrients form the pollution and that’s how they bay stays clear and healthy. Grasses in the bay are effected quickly by pollution, but they react fast to the improvement of water quality.…show more content…
For example parts of the Bay that are closest to oceans will end up having higher salinity, and places of the estuary that are near rivers or just by themselves will have lower levels because they have a more difficult way of becoming salinity. Organisms in the Chesapeake such as jelly fish, oysters, sea grasses and other are affected by the salinity levels in the bay. The Eastern oyster plays an important role in the ecosystem of the bay, they are filter feeds which means that they feed on particles or other things of matter in the water, which can help the water stay fresh and healthy. Less than 1% of the native oysters are around anymore because they are either being harvested or they are just dying out due to changes in water quality or other factors of

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