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Maryland Coastal Bays Program
The Maryland Coastal Bays Program (MCBP) is one of the 28 United States National Estuary Programs created in the 1987 Amendments to the Clean Water Act. The program, organized by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, is a non-regulatory federal-state-local collaboration working to restore water quality and conserve the natural resources of the bay system adjacent to Ocean City, Maryland and Assateague Island. The partnership works with municipalities, non-profits, governmental agencies, and businesses; and helps develop, find funding for, and implement projects and programs aimed at improving the health of the estuary. The partnership either directly implements these projects, or administers and manages grants, holds educational workshops and highlights project results. The program operates the Maryland Coastal Bays Foundation, a private, non-profit corporation which develops and implements of a Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan for Maryland’s Coastal Bays, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berlin, Maryland
Berlin is a town in Worcester County, Maryland, United States which includes its own historical Berlin Commercial District. The population was 4,485 at the 2010 census, and has since grown in population. It is part of the Salisbury, Maryland-Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. History The town of Berlin lies over land that was originally the 300-acre Burley Plantation, patented by William Tomkins in 1677. With the development of ancient Native American migratory and hunting trails into colonial highways, the Burley Plantation became a crossroads of a post road leading to Philadelphia (today's Main Street) and the Sinepuxent Road. Berlin developed in the early-19th century at this crossroads, where a tavern, blacksmith shop, and livery were among the first established businesses in the new town. Regional tradition asserts that the pronunciation of the town's name, "Burl'in" with emphasis on the first syllable, stems from the "Burley Inn," the early tavern that stood at th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hard Clam
The hard clam ('' Mercenaria mercenaria''), also known as the round clam, hard-shell (or hard-shelled) clam, or the quahog, is an edible marine bivalve mollusk that is native to the eastern shores of North America and Central America from Prince Edward Island to the Yucatán Peninsula. It is one of many unrelated edible bivalves that in the United States are frequently referred to simply as clams, as in the expression " clam digging". Older literature sources may use the systematic name ''Venus mercenaria''; this species is in the family Veneridae, the venus clams. Confusingly, the "ocean quahog" is a different species, '' Arctica islandica'', which, although superficially similar in shape, is in a different family of bivalves: it is rounder than the hard clam, usually has black periostracum, and there is no pallial sinus in the interior of the shell. Alternative names The hard clam has many alternative common names. It is also known as the Northern quahog, round clam, or cho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Environmental Organizations Based In Maryland
A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale from microscopic to global in extent. It can also be subdivided according to its attributes. Examples include the marine environment, the atmospheric environment and the terrestrial environment. The number of biophysical environments is countless, given that each living organism has its own environment. The term ''environment'' can refer to a singular global environment in relation to humanity, or a local biophysical environment, e.g. the UK's Environment Agency. Life-environment interaction All life that has survived must have adapted to the conditions of its environment. Temperature, light, humidity, soil nutrients, etc., all influence the species within an environment. However, life in turn modifies, in various forms, its conditions. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charities Based In Maryland
A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a charitable organization (and of charity) varies between countries and in some instances regions of the country. The regulation, the tax treatment, and the way in which charity law affects charitable organizations also vary. Charitable organizations may not use any of their funds to profit individual persons or entities. (However, some charitable organizations have come under scrutiny for spending a disproportionate amount of their income to pay the salaries of their leadership). Financial figures (e.g. tax refund, revenue from fundraising, revenue from sale of goods and services or revenue from investment) are indicators to assess the financial sustainability of a charity, especially to charity evaluators. This information can impact a char ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Common Tern
The common tern (''Sterna hirundo'') is a seabird in the family Laridae. This bird has a circumpolar distribution, its four subspecies breeding in temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America. It is strongly migratory, wintering in coastal tropical and subtropical regions. Breeding adults have light grey upperparts, white to very light grey underparts, a black cap, orange-red legs, and a narrow pointed bill. Depending on the subspecies, the bill may be mostly red with a black tip or all black. There are several similar species, including the partly sympatric Arctic tern, which can be separated on plumage details, leg and bill colour, or vocalisations. Breeding in a wider range of habitats than any of its relatives, the common tern nests on any flat, poorly vegetated surface close to water, including beaches and islands, and it readily adapts to artificial substrates such as floating rafts. The nest may be a bare scrape in sand or gravel, but it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maryland Department Of Natural Resources
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is a government agency in the state of Maryland charged with maintaining natural resources including state parks, public lands, state forests, state waterways, wildlife, and recreation areas. Its headquarters is in Annapolis. Department responsibilities The Department's principal functions are: * Managing over of public lands * Protecting over of waterways * Lead agency for restoration of the Chesapeake Bay and coastal bays.''Annual Report 2007-2008'' MdDNR; PDF download; (2007); Document no. DNR01-1242007-184; pp. 5-6 DNR does not issue or enforce environmental permits under the federal Clean Air Act, [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pseudo-nitzschia
''Pseudo-nitzschia'' is a marine planktonic diatom genus that accounts for 4.4% of pennate diatoms found worldwide. Some species are capable of producing the neurotoxin domoic acid (DA), which is responsible for the neurological disorder in humans known as amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP). Currently, 58 species are known, 28 of which have been shown to produced DA. It was originally hypothesized that only dinoflagellates could produce harmful algal toxins, but a deadly bloom of ''Pseudo-nitzschia'' occurred in 1987 in the bays of Prince Edward Island, Canada, and led to an outbreak of ASP. Over 100 people were affected by this outbreak after consuming contaminated mussels; three people died. Since this event, no additional deaths have been attributed to ASP, though the prevalence of toxic diatoms and DA has increased worldwide. This anomaly is likely due to increased awareness of harmful algal blooms (HABs) and their implications for human and ecosystem health. Blooms have si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karenia (dinoflagellate)
''Karenia'' is a genus that consists of unicellular, photosynthetic, planktonic organisms found in marine environments. The genus currently consists of 12 described species. They are best known for their dense toxic algal blooms and red tides that cause considerable ecological and economical damage; some ''Karenia'' species cause severe animal mortality. One species, ''Karenia brevis'', is known to cause respiratory distress and neurotoxic shellfish poisoning (NSP) in humans. Taxonomy The genus ''Karenia'' is named for Dr. Karen Steidinger for her exceptional contributions to dinoflagellate research. She has spent many decades researching ''Karenia brevis''. 12 species have been described in the genus ''Karenia'' thus far: * '' Karenia asterichroma'' * '' Karenia bicuneiformis'' * ''Karenia brevis'' * '' Karenia brevisulcata'' * '' Karenia concordia'' * '' Karenia cristata'' * '' Karenia digitata'' * '' Karenia longicanalis'' * ''Karenia mikimotoi'' * '' Karenia papilionacea' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinophysis
''Dinophysis'' is a genus of dinoflagellates AlgaeBase''Dinophysis'' Ehrenberg, 1839/ref> common in tropical, temperate, coastal and oceanic waters.Hallegraeff, G.M., Lucas, I.A.N. 1988: The marine dinoflagellate genus Dinophysis (Dinophyceae): photosynthetic, neritic and non-photosynthetic, oceanic species. Phycologia, 27: 25–42. 10.2216/i0031-8884-27-1-25.1 It was first described in 1839 by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg.Ehrenberg, C.G., 1839. Über jetzt wirklich noch zahlreich lebende Thier-Arten der Kreideformatien der Erde. Königlich Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Bericht über die zur Bekanntmachung geeigneten Verhandlungen, 1839, p. 152-159. Über noch zahlreich jetzt lebende Thierarten der Kreidebildung, nach Vorträgen in der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin in den Jahren 1839 und 1840, L. Voss, LeipzigPDF p. 44ff ''Dinophysis'' are typically medium-sized cells (30-120 µm). The structural plan and plate tabulation are conserve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harmful Algal Bloom
A harmful algal bloom (HAB) (or excessive algae growth) is an algal bloom that causes negative impacts to other organisms by production of natural algae-produced toxins, mechanical damage to other organisms, or by other means. HABs are sometimes defined as only those algal blooms that produce toxins, and sometimes as any algal bloom that can result in severely lower oxygen levels in natural waters, killing organisms in marine or fresh waters. Blooms can last from a few days to many months. After the bloom dies, the microbes that decompose the dead algae use up more of the oxygen, generating a "dead zone" which can cause fish die-offs. When these zones cover a large area for an extended period of time, neither fish nor plants are able to survive. Harmful algal blooms in marine environments are often called "red tides". It is sometimes unclear what causes specific HABs as their occurrence in some locations appears to be entirely natural, while in others they appear to be a r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nutrient Pollution
Nutrient pollution, a form of water pollution, refers to contamination by excessive inputs of nutrients. It is a primary cause of eutrophication of surface waters (lakes, rivers and coastal waters), in which excess nutrients, usually nitrogen or phosphorus, stimulate algal growth. Sources of nutrient pollution include surface runoff from farm fields and pastures, discharges from septic tanks and feedlots, and emissions from combustion. Raw sewage is a large contributor to cultural eutrophication since sewage is high in nutrients. Releasing raw sewage into a large water body is referred to as sewage dumping, and still occurs all over the world. Excess reactive nitrogen compounds in the environment are associated with many large-scale environmental concerns. These include eutrophication of surface waters, harmful algal blooms, hypoxia, acid rain, nitrogen saturation in forests, and climate change. Since the agricultural boom in the 1910s and again in the 1940s to match the i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seagrass
Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families ( Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the order Alismatales (in the clade of monocotyledons). Seagrasses evolved from terrestrial plants which recolonised the ocean 70 to 100 million years ago. The name ''seagrass'' stems from the many species with long and narrow leaves, which grow by rhizome extension and often spread across large " meadows" resembling grassland; many species superficially resemble terrestrial grasses of the family Poaceae. Like all autotrophic plants, seagrasses photosynthesize, in the submerged photic zone, and most occur in shallow and sheltered coastal waters anchored in sand or mud bottoms. Most species undergo submarine pollination and complete their life cycle underwater. While it was previously believed this pollination was carried out without p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
