Gunston Cove is an inlet of the Potomac River

Potomac River

The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...

, at the confluence of Accotink Creek

Accotink Creek

Accotink Creek is a tributary stream of the Potomac River in Fairfax County, Virginia, in the United States. At Springfield, Accotink Creek is dammed to create Lake Accotink. The stream empties into the Potomac at Gunston Cove's Accotink Bay, to the west of Fort Belvoir.-External links:**...

 and Pohick Creek

Pohick Creek

Pohick Creek is a tributary stream of the Potomac River in Fairfax County in the U.S. state of Virginia. It takes its name from the Pohick Native American tribe once prevalent in the area....

 in Northern Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

. The Cove forms the northern boundary of Mason Neck, once home to the revolutionary hero George Mason

George Mason

George Mason IV was an American Patriot, statesman and a delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention...

 and now site of several regional parks and the Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge.

A notable multi-decadal study of water quality and aquatic habitat in Gunston Cove and the adjacent Potomac River has illustrated how a tidal freshwater ecosystem can gradually recover from human-induced eutrophication

Eutrophication

Eutrophication or more precisely hypertrophication, is the movement of a body of water′s trophic status in the direction of increasing plant biomass, by the addition of artificial or natural substances, such as nitrates and phosphates, through fertilizers or sewage, to an aquatic system...

following management of upstream nutrient pollution.