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The Northeast United States and Atlantic Canada share many of the same types of forests, wetlands, and natural communities, and from a wildlife perspective the region is one contiguous forest. However, resources are classified and mapped differently on the two sides of the border, creating challenges for habitat evaluation, species modeling, and predicting the effects of climate change. To remedy this, ecologists from The Nature Conservancy collaborated with a committee of scientists from various Canadian institutions to produce the first international map of terrestrial habitats for northeast North America. The project used extensive spatial data on geology, soils, landforms, wetlands, elevation and climate. Additionally,...
Sediment and Phosphorous runoff from the Maumee River watershed, with the largest drainage of any of the great lakes watersheds, have been identified as significant contributors to water quality problems in the western basin of Lake Erie. Sediment and nutrient loading have been associated with increased harmful algal blooms and these blooms and sediment impact the most productive fishery in the Great Lakes. We use a calibrated SWAT model and climate model predictions to model the anticipated changes of discharge, sediment and phosphate from the Maumee River, both in terms of total volume and in temporal distribution of discharge. The model was calibrated to flow volume, sediment concentration and P concentrations....
Agricultural runoff is a major non-point source pollutant and is the leading impairment of streams and rivers in the USA. This study examined the effects of agricultural, forest and urban land cover on water quality at the watershed level. Forty-three catchments ranging from 12 to 50 km2 were selected based on a land cover gradient within Lower Kaskaskia River Watershed in Illinois. Grab samples were collected and analyzed for nutrients, bacteria, and total suspended solids (TSS). Forest land cover was included in six of the ten regression models produced. Four of these regression models were for base flow conditions, suggesting that forest land cover had a significant impact on base flow water quality. Urban land...
The Walnut Creek Watershed Monitoring Project was conducted from 1995 through 2005 to evaluate the response of stream nitrate concentrations to changing land use patterns in paired 5000-ha Iowa watersheds. A large portion of the Walnut Creek watershed is being converted from row crop agriculture to native prairie and savanna by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge (NSNWR). Before restoration, land use in both Walnut Creek (treatment) and Squaw Creek (control) watersheds consisted of 70% row crops. Between 1990 and 2005, row crop area decreased 25.4% in Walnut Creek due to prairie restoration but increased 9.2% in Squaw Creek due to Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grassland...
The Leary Weber Ditch Basin is nested within the Sugar Creek Basin in central Indiana. These basins make up one of the five study sites in the Nation selected for the Agricultural Chemicals: Sources, Transport, and Fate topical study, a part of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment Program. In this topical study, identifying the natural factors and human influences affecting water quality in the Leary Weber Ditch and Sugar Creek Basins are the focus of the assessment. A detailed comparison between the environmental settings of these basins is presented. Specifics of the topical study design as implemented in the Leary Weber Ditch and Sugar Creek Basins are described. The Leary Weber Ditch...
[1] Over the last century, land use and land cover (LULC) in the United States Corn Belt region shifted from mixed perennial and annual cropping systems to primarily annual crops. Historical LULC change impacted the annual water balance in many Midwestern basins by decreasing annual evapotranspiration (ET) and increasing streamflow and base flow. Recent expansion of the biofuel industry may lead to future LULC changes from increasing corn acreage and potential conversion of the industry to cellulosic bioenergy crops of warm or cool season grasses. In this paper, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was used to evaluate potential impacts from future LULC change on the annual and seasonal water balance...
Climate change can affect agricultural production and soil and water conservation. The objective of this study was to simulate the first order sensitivity of water resources, soil erosion, and wheat production to assumed climate changes in the region near El Reno, Oklahoma using the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model and a climate generator (CLIGEN). Monthly forecasts for the periods of 1950-1999 and 2070-2099 for the region, projected by the UK Hadley Centre's third generation general circulation model (HadCM3), were used. Three emissions scenarios (A2a, B2a, and GGa1) were selected. The WEPP model was run for each scenario in three tillage systems. Projected changes in monthly mean and variance between...
There is a strong societal need to evaluate and understand the sustainability of biofuels, especially because of the significant increases in production mandated by many countries, including the United States. Sustainability will be a strong factor in the regulatory environment and investments in biofuels. Biomass feedstock production is an important contributor to environmental, social, and economic impacts from biofuels. This study presents a systems approach where the agricultural, energy, and environmental sectors are considered as components of a single system, and environmental liabilities are used as recoverable resources for biomass feedstock production. We focus on efficient use of land and water resources....
Both climate and land use changes can affect the sustainability of water resources. Field studies and modeling efforts have provided valuable information regarding the impacts of these changes on surface water and groundwater resources. However, the use of physically-based fully-integrated hydrologic models to explore the entire hydrologic system in a holistic manner under climate and land use change has only just emerged. This type of modeling framework can be used to quantitatively evaluate the impact of both climate and land use changes on surface and subsurface hydrology, contaminant and thermal energy transport, and the interactions between the surface and subsurface flow and transport regimes. In this work,...
Stream pollution, or an excess of naturally occurring sediment, is a continual problem within watersheds and directly related to fluctuations of its fish inhabitants. Sediment introduction in a stream system occurs primarily by sheet flow and/or concentrated flow. Restoration efforts require knowledge in water resource engineering, fish and invertebrate habitat, and construction management. This report documents the hydrologic engineering analysis, planning, management, and monitoring of a successful stream restoration project in a rural region of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The Otter River restoration project was initiated in May 1999 to confront the problem of sediment pollution into the Otter Lake watershed....
Agricultural best management practices (BMPs), or conservation practices, can help reduce nonpoint source pollution from agricultural lands, as well as provide valuable wildlife habitat. There is a large literature exploring factors that lead to a producer’s voluntary adoption of BMPs, but there have been inconsistent findings. Generally, this literature has not examined specific attributes of BMPs that may affect acceptability to farmers and ultimately adoption. To address these limitations, a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with farmers was conducted to determine which characteristics make four common BMPs more or less acceptable to agricultural producers. Interviews were conducted with forty-five...
The history of mercury (Hg) inputs to 55 Minnesota (U.S.A.) lakes was reconstructed from 210Pb (lead-210)- dated sediment cores to determine if erosion of soils from agriculture and urbanization contributes a significant loading of Hg to lakes, and whether lakes near Hg-emitting facilities receive appreciable local atmospheric deposition. Modern (1994–1997) Hg accumulation and Hg flux ratios (modern : preindustrial) increase significantly with the percentage of watershed area under urban or agricultural land-use. Both past and modern Hg accumulation rates are strongly correlated with the flux of total aluminum (Al), a tracer for soil erosion. Modern Hg accumulation rates are substantially higher in the Minneapolis–St....
Corn (Zea mays L.) that has been genetically engineered to produce the Cry1Ab protein (Bt corn) is resistant to lepidopteran pests. Bt corn is widely planted in the midwestern United States, often adjacent to headwater streams. We show that corn byproducts, such as pollen and detritus, enter headwater streams and are subject to storage, consumption, and transport to downstream water bodies. Laboratory feeding trials showed that consumption of Bt corn byproducts reduced growth and increased mortality of nontarget stream insects. Stream insects are important prey for aquatic and riparian predators, and widespread planting of Bt crops has unexpected ecosystem-scale consequences.