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below Washington O.C., while the estuarine sections of the river are
only sparsely populated. Reasons for this are unclear, but as
previously stated, recovery in the Upper Potomac may be related to
reduced nutrient Inputs, while lack of resurgence In the Lower Potomac
is at present still a mystery.
It Is still too soon to tell if the resurgence of SAV seen in 1985 is
a sign of Improving water quality or just a fluctuation brought on by
a climatic event. Continued monitoring and analysis 1s needed.
Hopefully a USFaWS proposal to study SAV trends will shed more light
on the problem. In addition, a 1986 SAV monitoring program is in
place, imagery and ground truth data have been acquired, and
preliminary reports indicate that SAV abundance in most areas is
similar to that seen in 1985.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the many people who made the 1985 SAV survey a
possibility. In particular I thank Robert Orth for his leadership and
persistence in establishing the SAV monitoring program, and for
working with me to continue a baywide and Maryland SAV monitoring
program. A debt of gratitude Is owed to the funding agencies:
Maryland Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers - Baltimore District, U.S. F1sh and Wildlife Service and the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Technical reviewers of this
paper were Robert Orth and Doug Norton, while Mary Haller provided
style and grammatical editing. Thanks also go out to typists Debbie
Doebel and Karen Hott.
Literature Cited
Anderson, R.R. and R.T. Macomber. 1980. Distribution of submersed
vascular plants Chesapeake Bay, Maryland. U.S. EPA. Final
Report. Chesapeake Bay Program. Grant No. R80597O. 126 pp.
Carter, V., N.B. Rybicki, R.T. Anderson, T.J. Trombley and G.L.
Zynjuk. 1985a. Data on the distribution and abundance of
submersed aquatic vegetation 1n the tidal Potomac River and
transition zone of the Potomac estuary, Maryland, Virginia, and
the District of Columbia, 1983 and 1984. U.S. Geological Survey
Open-File Report 85-82. 65 pp.
Carter, V., J.E. Paschal, Jr. and N. Bartow. 1985b. Distribution and
abundance of submersed aquatic vegetation 1n the tidal Potomac
River and estuary, Maryland and Virginia, May 1978 to November
1981. U.S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 2234A. 54 pp.
Haramis, 6.M. and V. Carter. 1983. Distribution of submersed aquatic
macrophytes in the tidal Potomac River. Aquat. Bot. 15:65-79.
Kemp, W.M., W.R. Boynton, R.R. Twilley, J.C. Stevenson and L.G. Ward.
1984. Influences of submersed vascular plants on ecological
processes in upper Chesapeake Bay. pp. 367-394. In: V.S.
Kennedy (ed.l. The estuary as a filter. Academic-ress, Inc.,
New York.