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The Conservation Effects Assessment Program (CEAP), initiated by USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), has the goal of quantifying the environmental benefits of agricultural conservation practices. As part of this effort, detailed farmer surveyswere compiled to document the adoption of conservation practices. Survey data showed that up to 38 percent of cropland in the Upper Mississippi River basin is managed to reduce sediment, nutrient and pesticide loads from agricultural activities.

Nutrient pollution can be a leading cause of impairment to some U.S. waters. As a result, state and federal agencies are actively engaged in designing management programs and numeric nutrient criteria (NNC) to address nutrient impairments. Following implementation of the Clean Water Act, Florida, like other timber producing states, developed, tested and implemented best management practices (BMPs) to reduce potential impacts to water resources resulting from forest management activities.

Watersheds dominated by forest cover typically have high quality water. In managed forests, fertilizers may be periodically applied during the growing period. The Florida Forest Service has developed Best Management Practices (BMPs) for managed forests to minimize the potential impacts of forestry operations, including fertilization, to forest streams and maintain water quality. However, a comprehensive study evaluating stream condition (i.e. water quality and biota) prior to, during, and following fertilization in the context of BMPs and natural variability has not been conducted.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has partnered with U.S. Geological Survey to establish 2 continuous water-quality monitoring stations at Lake Mattamuskeet. Stations on the east and west side of the lake measure water level, clarity, dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, salinity, and conductivity.

The Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) is an USDA initiative that involves the Agricultural Research Service, the National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA), and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The overall goal of CEAP is to provide scientifically credible estimates of the environmental benefits obtained from USDA conservation programs.

Panama lies in the seasonal tropics and over 85 percent of annual precipitation falls during the May-December wet season. Extreme rainfall events near the end of the wet season can produce flooding that impact Panama Canal operations. During the December-April dry season, occasional water shortages limit the draft of ships passing through the Panama Canal, as well as hydropower production.

Estimates of surface hydrological characteristics in watershed ecosystems are essential to climate change assessment, water supply planning, water quality protection, ecological restoration, and water resources management.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has a long history of conducting rigorous assessments of ecological conditions in both tidal and nontidal waters. The Long-Term Benthic (LTB) Monitoring Program and the Maryland Biological Stream Survey (MBSS) both use reference-based indicators of benthic invertebrate communities to provide areawide estimates of condition status and trends.

The Tampa Bay estuary has undergone a remarkable ecosystem recovery since the 1980s despite continued population growth within the region. However during this time, the Old Tampa Bay (OTB) segment has lagged behind the rest of the Bay’s recovery relative to improvements in overall water quality and seagrass coverage. In 2011, the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, in partnership with the Southwest Florida Water Management District, began development of an integrated set of numerical and empirical modeling approaches to evaluate management actions to improve the ecology of the OTB estuarine...