The state has at least 84 square miles of blue carbon reservoirs, which store at least 1.7 million tons of carbon in the soil and vegetation. That much carbon is equal to the annual emissions of 1.25 million passenger cars.
Warming water is threatening to undo decades of efforts aimed at improving aquatic habitat in the Chesapeake region, from headwater streams to the open water of the Bay itself.
Chesapeake Bay summer water temperatures are increasing by nearly a half degree Fahrenheit per decade and rising nearly twice as fast as global surface ocean water temperatures, according to a recent study.
