Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

Nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended-sediment loads and trends measured at the Chesapeake Bay River Input Monitoring stations: Water years 1985-2018

Metadata Updated: January 7, 2026

Nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended-sediment loads, and changes in loads, in major rivers across the Chesapeake Bay watershed have been calculated using monitoring data from the Chesapeake Bay River Input Monitoring (RIM) stations for the period 1985 through 2018. Nutrient and suspended-sediment loads and changes in loads were determined by applying a weighted regression approach called WRTDS (Weighted Regression on Time, Discharge, and Season). The load results represent the total mass of nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended sediment that was exported from each of the RIM watersheds. To determine the trend in loads, the annual load results are flow normalized to integrate out the year-to-year variability in river discharge. The trend in load is derived from the flow-normalized load timeseries and represents the change in load resulting from changes in sources, delays associated with storage or transport of historical inputs, and (or) implemented management actions. Four data tables are provided that describe nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended-sediment conditions across the RIM: (1) Annual Loads, (2) Monthly Loads, (3) Trends in Annual Loads, and (4) Average Yield (mass per unit area). Additionally, essential WRTDS Input and Output files are provided.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date January 7, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 7, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date January 7, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 7, 2026
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/USGS_5cc1b6cfe4b09b8c0b746dd1
Data Last Modified 2020-08-27T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 533a6e2e-791d-420b-ac9a-bcfae1ee453c
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -79.167480469182, 36.208470061656, -74.904785156852, 42.714410712674
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 5eda0cdb55438b0fa84ec60e70720ace03162e05615a2be01874116dd0e746d5
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -79.167480469182, 36.208470061656, -79.167480469182, 42.714410712674, -74.904785156852, 42.714410712674, -74.904785156852, 36.208470061656, -79.167480469182, 36.208470061656}

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.