DOCUMENT RESUME SO 028 925 ED 439 981 Chase, Valerie AUTHOR The Changing Chesapeake: An Introduction to the Natural TITLE History and Cultural History of the Chesapeake Bay. Revised. Fish and Wildlife Service (Dept. of Interior), Annapolis, INSTITUTION MD.; National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD. Dept. of Education and Interpretation. 1991-00-00 PUB DATE 73p.; Designed and illustrated by Cynthia A. Belcher. For NOTE the publication "Living in Water," see ED 431 587. Development and printing also supported by the Chesapeake Bay Trust. Education Department, National Aquarium in Baltimore, 501 E. AVAILABLE FROM Pratt St., Baltimore, MD 21202 ($3.50). Tel: 410-576-3800; Web site: http://www.aqua.org. Learner (051) Guides - Classroom PUB TYPE MF01/PC03 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE *American Indians; *Change; *Conservation (Environment); DESCRIPTORS *Ecology; Elementary Secondary Education; Environment; *Environmental Education; Natural Resources; Physical Geography; Social Studies; *United States History; Water Pollution; Water Resources *Chesapeake Bay IDENTIFIERS ABSTRACT This book is about changes in the Chesapeake Bay, its animals, plants, and the surrounding land during the last 15,000 years. Some changes were caused by natural forces while others were made by people. "Chesapeake Challenges" tests the student's thinking skills. "Family Action" lists things families can do to learn more about the Chesapeake Bay region. The book tells the reader how to be a component of the Chesapeake Bay's future by understanding why the Bay is in trouble and how each person can "The Chesapeake Bay before European help. Sections of the book include: (1) "Map of the "The Natural History of the Chesapeake Bay"; Settlement"; (3) (2) "Changes in the Chesapeake Bay and its Chesapeake Bay and Its Watershed"; (4) "The Chesapeake Bay Today." Watershed Caused by European Settlement"; and (5) The volume concludes with an information section for parents and teachers. The handbook is designed to complement the National Aquarium's publication, "Living in Water." (EH) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. THE CHANGING CHESAPEAKE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION (NI Office of Educational Research and Improvement ..... EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) lif This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization 4i$are7isi originating it. ;;1.: 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. 1 Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. cultural history natural history and introduction to the an Bay of the Chesapeake BEST COPY AVAILABLE: This booklet was written by Valerie Chase, Ph.D., staff biologist at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, and designed and illustrated by Cynthia A. Belcher, as part of a joint project between Department of Education and Interpretation National Aquarium in Baltimore 4111/1(k Chesapeake Bay Estuary Program U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service e N FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE Development and first printing supported by: The Chesapeake Bay Trust National Aquarium In Baltimore Mrs. Helen Ann Patton Fourth printing funded by The Chesapeake Bay Trust 1991 Revision In Cooperation with National Fish and Wildlife Foundation The manuscript was read by Calvert R. Posey, Sr., Gary Heath (MSDE), Martha Nichols, Britt Slattery (USFWS), Bronwen Lerner and Chris Bennett. Martha Nichols also helped with editorial work. The National Aquarium in Baltimore is not affiliated with the National Aquarium located in Washington, D.C. Any teacher, school or school district may reproduce this for class use without written permission. It may not be sold for profit. 1)- Recycled ecycled paper Chesapeake Challenges and The Changing Chesapeake Family Action INTRODUCTION As you go through this book, you will which meet Chesapeake Challenges The Chesapeake Bay is changing; many of its plants and animals are test your thinking skills. Family Ac- tion lists things to do with your family in danger. that will help you to learn more about Everything changes with time. Many human activities cause change. the Chesapeake Bay region. Find the Some changes happen very fast. A forest fire set by a person destroys exact location of places to visit by thousands of acres of trees in a day. It takes longer to remove a forest looking in books on day trips in the by cutting the trees for lumber, but the forest is still lost. Some changes travel section of your library. They will are caused by building. A farm disappears as houses cover its fields. tell you more and give exact locations. The course of history changes in an instant when a leader like John F. If you are using this book with your Kennedy or Martin Luther King, Jr. is killed. The actions of people teacher or parents, Parent/Teacher who live around the Chesapeake Bay have changed the Bay. Discussions will help increase your understanding of important Bay is- Change may also be caused by natural events. Sometimes it is fast. sues. If you do not have a map of your An earthquake changes land in an instant. A volcanic eruption destroys state, request one from: thousands of acres of forest. A hurricane changes an entire coastline overnight. Other natural changes are so slow that we use special instru- ments to detect them. The movement of continents and the wearing MARYLAND Tourism down of mountains show this very slow change. 1-800-543-1036 This book is about changes in the Chesapeake Bay, its animals and plants, and the surrounding land in the last 15,000 years. Some were VIRGINIA Department caused by natural forces while others are made by people. The changes of Transportation that endanger the Chesapeake Bay are a part of our past. The changes 1401 E. Broad St. that we must make to save the Bay are in our future. This book lets you Richmond, VA 23219 be a part of the Chesapeake Bay's future by understanding why the Chesapeake Bay is in trouble and how you can help. NOTE TO PARENTS AND TEACHERS Answers to the thinking skills questions, suggested discussion questions and instructional strate- gies, and information on ways to use this booklet with Living in Water, an aquatic science curriculum for upper elementary/middle school grades from the National Aquarium in Baltimore, are located on pages 57-60. 1 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 The Chesapeake Bay before European Settlement 3 The End of the Last Ice Age 4 Map of the Chesapeake Bay Shorelines 5 Climate Change in the Future 6 The Land Changed as the Bay Formed 7 The First Americans: Changing Ways of Life 8 The Chesapeake Bay as Seen by the Europeans 9 Native Americans of the Chesapeake Bay Region 10 Native Americans and their Environment 11 The Natural History of the Chesapeake Bay 12 The Chesapeake Bay and its Watershed 13 The Chesapeake Bay Watershed 14 The Chesapeake Bay's Salt Water 15 What is Special About an Estuary? 16 Tides in the Chesapeake Bay 17 Chesapeake Habitats 18 Classifying Habitats of the Chesapeake Bay 19 Chesapeake Bay Food Chains 23 Zooplankton in the Chesapeake Bay 24 Blue Crabs in the Chesapeake Bay 25 Map of the Chesapeake Bay 26 Oysters 27 Atlantic Menhaden 28 Striped Bass 29 Map of the Chesapeake Bay and its Watershed 30 Changes in the Chesapeake Bay and its Watershed Caused by European Settlement 32 European Settlement of the Chesapeake Bay 33 Growing Tobacco 34 The Force of Moving Water 35 Using Water Power 36 Travel and Trade in Early Times 37 Working Boats and Ships of the Chesapeake Bay 38 Fishing the Bay 42 The Chesapeake Bay Today 43 Habitats in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Today 44 Muddy Water 48 Too Many Nutrients 49 Toxic Materials in the Bay 50 Too Many Phytoplankton and No Oxygen 51 Lost Underwater Grass Beds 52 The Problem is People 53 Meeting the Challenge 54 Forests to Help the Bay 55 What Can Just One Kid Do? 56 Parent/Teacher Information 57 2 The Chesapeake Bay before European Settlement Many changes took place in the Chesapeake Bay and the land surrounding the Bay before Europeans settled here. Some of these changes were caused by natural events. One change was the arrival of the first Americans who came not from Europe, but from Asia. 2- 6 3 Chesapeake Challenge The End of the Last Ice Age 1. Color the spaces on the map of the Four times during the last million years the great sheets of ice that old Chesapeake Bay on page 5 to see cover the polar region have slowly grown across Canada and down into the changes in the shape of the Che- the United States. Only 20,000 years ago ice more than 180-200 m sapeake Bay from a river valley 15,000 (600-700 ft) covered much of New York and Pennsylvania and even years ago to the Bay as it is today. Use extended into parts of Maryland. These periods are called the Ice Ages. blue for the river 15,000 years ago and green for the Bay 3,000 years ago. In between these Ice Ages the Earth's climate warmed, and the ice melted. We are living during the warm period that followed the last Ice 2. If you lived where you do now 8,000 Age. Earth scientists (geologists) do not know for sure what caused years ago, would you have been nearer these changes between warm and cold climates. or farther from the shore of the Bay than you are today? The water that formed the ice came from the ocean. When so much water was locked up as ice, sea level was much lower. Twenty thou- sand years ago sea level was 100 m (330 ft) lower than it is today. Where the Chesapeake Bay is now, there was a valley created by the Susquehanna River which flowed down the valley and into the Atlantic Ocean. Eighteen thousand years ago the Earth's climate began to warm slowly. As the ice melted, sea level rose. By 10,000 years ago the ocean began to flood the lower Susquehanna Valley. By 3,000 years ago, the shores of the Chesapeake Bay were almost where they are today. Even today sea level is still rising, but very slowly. Over the last 100 years it has gone up at the rate of about 1 mm per year or about 4 inches in 100 years. `N. / A gth IUD 7 4 Map of the Chesapeake Bay Shorelines Current land area 10 15 20 miles 0 5 I I 30 kilometers 20 0 10 a Chesapeake Challenge Climate Change in the Future 1. Use the estimate given here to cal- Scientists do not know what caused the changing pattern of cold and culate how much sea level may rise in warm climates that caused the Ice Ages. The different ideas about the 60 years, during your life. causes of the warming and cooling are called theories. Since it is not possible to test these theories, we may never know for sure. Family Action On the other hand, scientists often look to the future with guesses 1. Working together, list all the ways about what will happen based on their observations of current and past that you and your family make carbon events. These guesses are called predictions. One of the most important dioxide. Can you think of some ways predictions for future change is increased heating of the Earth caused by that you and your family could change increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere. your way of life to decrease the amount People cause this change. We burn fossil fuels such of carbon dioxide you make? as natural gas, coal, and oil to cook our food, heat our homes, run our cars and make 2.In addition to reducing the fossil fuel most of our electricity. Wood, the most common fuel for people in poor you use, your family can help reduce countries, also releases carbon dioxide when it burns. Cutting and the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere burning forests to clear land adds more. by planting trees in your yard. Grow- ing trees use carbon dioxide which Carbon dioxide gas absorbs the heat from the Sun. It also traps heat they get from the atmosphere. that the Earth would lose to space. This trapping of heat is commonly called the "greenhouse effect" because it reminds people of the way a greenhouse warms up on a cold, sunny day. The Earth's atmosphere is getting warmer. What do we know from the past about warm periods? As the climate heats up, more ice melts at the North and South Poles. Sea level will start rising faster than the current 1 mm per year. Predictions are as much as 2.5 cm (1 in) per year. 7 6 Chesapeake Challenge The Land Changed as the Bay Formed 1. Plants and animals die out or be- As the climate warmed and sea level rose, the plants and animals on come extinct for many reasons. List the land around the Chesapeake Bay changed too. During the last Ice two causes of extinction mentioned Age, the forests were similar to those that are now found in Canada. here. The trees were mostly spruce, fir and hemlock, whose needles remain 2. The Ice Age forests moved slowly green all year (evergreen). There were lush meadows and marshes on north to Canada over thousands of the bottom of what is now the Chesapeake Bay and on the continental years. Predict what might happen to shelf along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. plants and trees in the Chesapeake if the climate region in the future Large plant-eating mammals roamed these meadows. They included changes rapidly due to the greenhouse the elephant-like mammoths and mastodons as well as bison, moose and effect. elk. None of these animals are found in the Chesapeake Bay region today. Elk and moose moved north as the climate warmed. Mastodons and mammoths died out (became extinct). They may not have been Family Action able to survive the changing climate. The eastern forest bison survived 1. Explore a tiny bit of Maryland that until Europeans arrived. Then they were hunted to extinction. What has survived from the Ice Age: Cra- evidence do we have that these animals were here? Fossil bones and nesville Sub-Arctic Swamp owned by teeth have been found on the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay and along the Nature Conservancy and located the continental shelf. on the border with West Virginia. Where did the Ice Age forests go? As the climate changed, each 2. Discover what those Ice Age ani- generation of seedlings grew a little further north or a little higher in the mals looked like. The Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural His- mountains where it was still cool. These same evergreen trees now tory has exhibits on these animals in grow in Canada and along the tops of the mountains in the eastern the Hall of Evolution. United States. They were replaced in most of the Chesapeake Bay region by trees that lose their leaves in winter such as oaks, hickories, beech and chestnuts. 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