Sediment and nutrient runoff contributes to loss of agricultural productivity, degradation of local streams, and hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. The North Fork Maquoketa Basin has been identified as a major contributor of sediment and nutrients. Agricultural best management practices are now being implemented in the upper basin through the Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watersheds Initiative led by the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Natural Resource Conservation Service in conjunction with local watershed groups. Best management practices in target watersheds are designed to optimize use of nitrogen and phosphorus within fields and reduce downstream nutrient loading by trapping nutrient and sediment runoff, simultaneously improving wildlife habitat and maintaining agricultural productivity. Monitoring sediment and nutrient loads at appropriate scales is challenging due to complex interactions between streamflow, chemical/sediment concentrations and living organisms in the ecosystem. In partnership with U.S Geological Survey, Iowa Department of Natural Resources and other conservation partners, the LCC is supporting continuous water quality monitoring using optical sensors and gages that measure nutrients and turbidity. These techniques are deployed to monitor across a broad range of relevant time scales and to collect the information needed for targeting conservation practices where they may be most effective.
