Developing Landscape-Indicator Models for Pesticides and Nutrients in Streams of the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain
By L. Joseph Bachman and David E. Krantz
Abstract
Although nitrogen is essential for healthy plant and animal populations, elevated concentrations of this nutrient can degrade water quality, and excessive concentrations of nitrate (the most common form of nitrogen dissolved in streams and ground water) in surface water can trigger the growth of algae and other nuisance plants. A significant part of the total nitrogen load to Chesapeake Bay is carried by ground water that discharges to streams that flow into the Bay. Marine and estuarine silts in the Coastal Plain of Southern Maryland have a high potential to reduce the amount of nitrate in the ground water flowing through the sediments and consequently into the Bay.
