Dauer, Marshall, Donat to Present Saturday Science Program

How do we measure the environmental health of the Chesapeake Bay? Three Old Dominion University faculty members who are veteran scientific observers of the bay will answer that question in the next ODU Saturday Morning Science Series presentation on April 14.

"Eyes on the Bay: The Chesapeake Bay Program at Old Dominion University" is the title of the presentation that will be given by Dan Dauer and Harold Marshall of the Department of Biological Sciences and John Donat of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

They will deliver their talk at 10:30 a.m. April 14 in Room 200 of the Oceanography and Physical Sciences Building. Anyone with an interest in science, regardless of background or age, is invited to attend. Programs in the series are free.

The Chesapeake Bay Program at ODU was initiated in 1985 to conduct long-term studies of the water quality, benthic ecology and phytoplankton of the bay in support of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality's objectives to restore the bay's environmental health.

The program provides information necessary to measure the effectiveness of projects aimed at reducing point and non-point source nutrient inputs to the bay and determine progress toward achievement of various habitat and water quality goals. In addition, the program provides data for calibration/validation of computer models used for developing bay restoration strategies.

Dauer is the overall principal investigator for ODU's bay program and the leader of the benthic ecology section. Marshall heads up the phytoplankton studies and Donat is responsible for the water quality measurements. Other ODU faculty members contribute statistical analysis and data processing services and about a dozen other graduate students and technicians are also involved in the work.

For more information on the Saturday Morning Science Series, visit: http://sci.odu.edu/physics/events/sms.html.