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Abstract: Increasing concerns regarding water quality in the Great Lakes region are mainly due to changes in urban and agricultural landscapes. Both point and non-point sources contribute pollution to Great Lakes surface waters. Best management practices (BMPs) are a common tool used to reduce both point and non-point source pollution and improve water quality. Meanwhile, identification of critical source areas of pollution and placement of BMPs plays an important role in pollution reduction. The goal of this study is to evaluate the performance of different targeting methods in 1) identifying priority areas (high, medium, and low) based on various factors such as pollutant concentration, load, and yield, 2) comparing...
Extensive land-use changes in Iowa have increased erosional processes and the amount of fines deposited on stream beds. Large amounts of fines cover the other bed substrate that are essential habitat for invertebrates and fish. In Iowa and other agricultural Midwestern states, riparian conservation land-uses are being established to minimize sediment inputs to streams. This study compared stream bed substrate composition in reaches adjacent to: riparian forest buffers, grass filters, row-cropped fields, pastures with cattle fenced out of the stream and continuous, rotational and intensively grazed rotational pastures, in three regions of Iowa. The objective was to examine the impacts of the adjacent riparian land-uses...
The U.S. Geological Survey Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) model was applied to basins in 14 different hydroclimatic regions to determine the sensitivity and variability of the freshwater resources of the United States in the face of current climate-change projections. Rather than attempting to choose a most likely scenario from the results of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an ensemble of climate simulations from five models under three emissions scenarios each was used to drive the basin models. Climate-change scenarios were generated for PRMS by modifying historical precipitation and temperature inputs; mean monthly climate change was derived by calculating changes in mean climates...
Nonpoint-source pollution of fresh waters by P is a concern because it contributes to accelerated eutrophication. Given the state of the science concerning agricultural P transport, a simple tool to quantify annual, field-scale P loss is a realistic goal. We developed new methods to predict annual dissolved P loss in runoff from surface-applied manures and fertilizers and validated the methods with data from 21 published field studies. We incorporated these manure and fertilizer P runoff loss methods into an annual, field-scale P loss quantification tool that estimates dissolved and particulate P loss in runoff from soil, manure, fertilizer, and eroded sediment. We validated the P loss tool using independent data...
Spatial and temporal mismatches between coarse resolution projections of global climate models (GCMs) and fine resolution data requirements of ecosystems models are the major obstacles for assessing the site-specific climatic impacts of climate change on natural resources and ecosystems. The objectives of this study were to: (i) develop a simple method for statistically downscaling GCM monthly output at the native GCM grid scale to station-scale using transfer functions, and (ii) further demonstrate the site-specific impact assessment of climate change on water resources, soil erosion, and crop production at Kingfisher, OK, US using the water erosion prediction project (WEPP) model. Monthly precipitation and temperature...
Reducing non-point source phosphorus (P) pollution is often necessary to improve water quality in agricultural streams. Soil total P (TP) concentrations and compaction are soil characteristics that can influence P losses to streams. The objective of this study was to compare these two soil characteristics among riparian forest buffers, grass filters, pastures with cattle fenced out of the stream, intensive rotational, rotational and continuously grazed pastures and row-cropped fields in three physiographic regions of Iowa. Soil TP and compaction for the seven riparian land-uses were determined in stream bank and surface riparian soils. Total P concentrations in stream bed material along the seven riparian land-uses...
[1] The increased use of nitrogen fertilizer in the Mississippi River Basin since the 1950s has been blamed for declining water quality, the degradation of aquatic ecosystems and the growth of a seasonal hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico. In this study, we use the IBIS terrestrial ecosystem model and the HYDRA aquatic transport model to examine how agricultural practices and climate influenced terrestrial and aquatic nitrogen cycling across the Mississippi Basin and the nitrate export to the Gulf. The modeling system accurately depicts the observed trends and interannual variability in nitrate export by the Mississippi River (r2 > 0.83), and several of the major tributaries, between 1960 and 1994. The challenge...
Assessing the accuracy of agronomic and water quality simulation models in different soils, land-use systems, and environments provides a basis for using and improving these models. We evaluated the performance of the ADAPT model for simulating riverine nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N) export from a 1500-km2 watershed in central Illinois, where approximately 85% of the land is used for maize-soybean production and tile drainage is common. Soil chemical properties, crop nitrogen (N) uptake coefficient, dry matter ratio, and a denitrification reduction coefficient were used as calibration parameters to optimize the fit between measured and simulated NO3-N load from the watershed for the 1989 to 1993 period. The applicability...
Concern over global environmental change and associated uncertainty has given rise to greater emphasis on fostering resilience through forest management. We examined the impact of standard silvicultural systems (including clearcutting, shelterwood, and selection) compared with unharvested controls on tree functional identity and functional diversity in three forest types distributed across the northeastern United States. Sites included the Argonne, Bartlett, and Penobscot Experimental Forests located in Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Maine, respectively. We quantified functional trait means for leaf mass per area, specific gravity, maximum height, height achieved at 20 years, seed mass, drought tolerance, shade tolerance,...
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Historical and projected suitable habitat of 14 tree and shrub species a under CCSM4 GCMs from 2000 to 2099 was predicted to assess projected climate change impacts in forest communities of North Central U.S. We obtained presence/absence record of each species from Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data. required ata. Historical tme period ranges from 1971 to 2000, and projected time period ranges from 2071 to 2100. Random Forest was used to project historical and future suitable habitat of all species across West U.S. using the Biomod2 software programmed in R environment. We adopted a climate change scenarios generated from the experiments conducted under fifth assessment of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project...
Summary Analysis of historical streamflow trends and their relationship to landscape characteristics is essential for understanding geographic differences in runoff within the Great Lakes basin and for distinguishing temporal trends from temporal variance. Factor analysis of streamflow records (1956–1988) from 32 US Geological Survey gauging stations within the Great Lakes basin revealed distinct spatio-temporal patterns of stream runoff within five different regions of the basin. Streams represented by the first annual factor occurred in southern Wisconsin and the lower peninsula of Michigan, and exhibited a linear increase in mean annual streamflow over the 33 year period caused by increased autumn and winter...
map background search result map search result map Habitat Suitability of Dominant Tree and Shrub Species to Support Wolverine Management Across North West U.S. (1971-2100) Under Climate Change Habitat Suitability of Dominant Tree and Shrub Species to Support Wolverine Management Across North West U.S. (1971-2100) Under Climate Change