Director and Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences: Daniel M. Dauer
The Chesapeake Bay Program at Old Dominion University (ODU) collected data to support the objectives of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to restore the environmental health of the Chesapeake Bay. The Chesapeake Bay Monitoring Program, initiated in 1985, was a multi-purpose program that included long-term studies conducted by ODU. The objective was to characterize the present state of the Bay, determine long-term trends, and provide insights into ecological interactions. The program provided necessary information to measure effectiveness of point and non-point source programs in reducing nutrient input to the Bay and determine progress towards achievement of living resources and water quality habitat goals. This program also provided data for calibration/validation/verification of computer simulation models used for developing Chesapeake Bay restoration strategies.
The primary goals of the Virginia Chesapeake Bay Monitoring Program were: To characterize the environmental health of regional areas of the Lower Chesapeake Bay. To conduct trend analyses on long-term data to relate temporal trends in the living resources to changes in water and/or sediment quality. To warn of environmental degradation by producing a historical database that would allow annual evaluations of biotic impacts. The Chesapeake Bay Program at ODU provided technical support for the research community in the form of specialized facilities, state-of-the-art equipment and high quality analytical and operational services. The three research laboratories were the Benthic Ecology Laboratory, Phytoplankton Laboratory, and the Water Quality Laboratory. Moreover, the program provided new research opportunities for faculty members and students throughout the University, particularly in the areas of mission-oriented and multi-disciplinary environmental research.