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Implementation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) has resulted in the restoration of >2 million ha of wetland and grassland habitats in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR). Restoration of habitats through these programs provides diverse ecosystem services to society, but few investigators have evaluated the environmental benefits achieved by these programs. We describe changes in wetland processes, functions, and ecosystem services that occur when wetlands and adjacent uplands on agricultural lands are restored through Farm Bill conservation programs. At the scale of wetland catchments, projects have had positive impacts on water storage,...
Desert grasslands, which are very sensitive to external drivers like climate change, are areas affected by rapid land degradation processes. In many regions of the world the common form of land degradation involves the rapid encroachment of woody plants into desert grasslands. This process, thought to be irreversible and sustained by biophysical feedbacks of global desertification, results in the heterogeneous distribution of vegetation and soil resources. Most of these shrub-grass transition systems at the desert margins are prone to disturbances such as fires, which affect the interactions between ecological, hydrological, and land surface processes. Here we investigate the effect of prescribed fires on the landscape...
Cyanobacteria are known to form a crust on soil surfaces holding soil particles together and thereby offering resistance to erosion. A controlled experiment was carried out to throw light on this issue. The experiment consisted of subjecting erosion cups filled with soil to artificial rainfall in the laboratory. Three sets of erosion cups, each set consisting of six, were used. One set consisted of soil with inoculated cyanobacteria and the second set consisted of soil with naturally colonized cyanobacteria, both over a period of about 8 months. The third set consisted of soil with no bacterial growth. The results indicate that the soil erosion cups with the inoculated cyanobacterial crust had at least one order...
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This dataset represents 25 parallel longitudinal profiles that were extracted from terrestrial lidar point clouds taken during six survey periods. The six lidar surveys were conducted between 7 October 2010 and 8 October 2013. Over that time a colluvial hollow eroded into a fluvial channel. The longitudinal profiles show the topography of the colluvial hollow for each survey period. The width of the original colluvial hollow was approximately 1.25 m, and a longitudinal profile was extracted every 5 cm for the entire length of the hollow, resulting in 25 parallel longitudinal profiles. These data can be used to observe the transition of the colluvial hollow to a fluvial channel and furthermore they show the development...
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Soil erosion potential due to water based on the RUSLE soil loss equation. These data are provided by Bureau of Land Management (BLM) "as is" and may contain errors or omissions. The User assumes the entire risk associated with its use of these data and bears all responsibility in determining whether these data are fit for the User's intended use. These data may not have the accuracy, resolution, completeness, timeliness, or other characteristics appropriate for applications that potential users of the data may contemplate. The User is encouraged to carefully consider the content of the metadata file associated with these data. The BLM should be cited as the data source in any products derived from these data.
Agricultural residues have been identified as a significant potential resource for bioenergy production, but serious questions remain about the sustainability of harvesting residues. Agricultural residues play an important role in limiting soil erosion from wind and water and in maintaining soil organic carbon. Because of this, multiple factors must be considered when assessing sustainable residue harvest limits. Validated and accepted modeling tools for assessing these impacts include the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation Version 2 (RUSLE2), the Wind Erosion Prediction System (WEPS), and the Soil Conditioning Index. Currently, these models do not work together as a single integrated model. Rather, use of these...
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Following wildfire, mountainous areas of the western United States are susceptible to enhanced runoff and erosion and an increased vulnerability to debris flow during intense rainfall. Convective storms that can generate debris flows in recently burned areas may occur during or immediately after the wildfire, leaving insufficient time for development and implementation of risk mitigation strategies. We present a method for estimating post-fire debris-flow hazards prior to wildfire using historical data to define the range of potential fire severity for a given location based on the statistical distribution of severity metrics obtained from remote sensing. Estimates of debris-flow likelihood, magnitude and triggering...
Trends and uncertainty of the climate change impacts on hydrology, soil erosion, and wheat production during 2010–2039 at El Reno in central Oklahoma, USA, were evaluated for 12 climate change scenarios projected by four GCMs (CCSR/NIES, CGCM2, CSIRO-Mk2, and HadCM3) under three emissions scenarios (A2, B2, and GGa). Compared with the present climate, overall t-tests (n = 12) show that it is almost certain that mean precipitation will decline by some 6% (>98.5% probability), daily precipitation variance increase by 12% (>99%), and maximum and minimum temperature increase by 1.46 and 1.26 °C (>99%), respectively. Compared with the present climate under the same tillage systems, it is very likely (>90%) that evapotranpiration...
Wind is a persistent force in arid and semiarid lands. Microphytic crusts have been attributed with the ability to reduce wind erosion because of soil binding qualities. The purpose of this research was to determine if microphytic crusts contribute to soil stability in an arid land setting. Threshold friction velocity is the wind speed necessary for the initiation of soil erosion and, thus, is a measure of soil surface stability. A portable wind tunnel was used to determine threshold friction velocity on soil surfaces consisting of microphytic crusts living and undisturbed (control), chemically killed microphytic crusts but otherwise undisturbed (chemically killed), and microphytic crusts mechanically removed from...
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Mitigation of ecological damage caused by rangeland wildfires has historically been an issue restricted to the western United States. It has focused on conservation of ecosystem function through reducing soil erosion and spread of invasive plants. Effectiveness of mitigation treatments has been debated recently. We searched for literature on postfire seeding of rangelands worldwide. Literature databases searched included SCOPUS, Dissertation Abstracts, Forest Science, Tree search, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and science.gov. Search terms within publications included fire or wildfire in combination with seeding, rehabilitation, restoration, revegetation, stabilization, chaining, disking, drilling, invasives,...
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Using Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) soil databases, topographic features derived from digital elevation models, stream networks, and regional climatic patterns, I developed a ranking system for watershed potential erosion rates and suitability for check-dam placement across the SRLCC. This ranking system serves as a first step for land managers to prioritize areas for check-dam installation based on relatively static factors (soil properties, topography, and hydrology) that can contribute to rates of soil erosion by water and the stability of check-dams. Many other relatively dynamic factors over time can contribute to rates of soil erosion by water, such as recent wildfire events, changes in weather...
Abstract: Applying the ecosystem services concept to conservation initiatives or in managing ecosystem services requires understanding how environmental impacts affect the ecology of key species or functional groups providing the services. We examined effects of river impoundments, one of the leading threats to freshwater biodiversity, on an important ecosystem service provided by large tropical rivers (i.e., artisanal fisheries). The societal and economic importance of this ecosystem service in developing countries may provide leverage to advance conservation agendas where future impoundments are being considered. We assessed impoundment effects on the energetic costs of fisheries production (embodied energy) and...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation; Tags: Effects, energy, prices, relative, soil erosion
The primary objectives of this research were to determine SWAT model predicted reductions in four water quality indicators (sediment yield, surface runoff, nitrate nitrogen (NO3–N) in surface runoff, and edge-of-field erosion) associated with producing switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) on cropland in the Delaware basin in northeast Kansas, and evaluate switchgrass break-even prices. The magnitude of potential switchgrass water quality payments based on using switchgrass as an alternative energy source was also estimated. SWAT model simulations showed that between 527,000 and 1.27 million metric tons (Mg) of switchgrass could be produced annually across the basin depending upon nitrogen (N) fertilizer application levels...
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Recently disturbed and ‘control’ (i.e. less recently disturbed) soils in the Mojave Desert were compared for their vulnerability to wind erosion, using a wind tunnel, before and after being experimentally trampled. Before trampling, control sites had greater cyanobacterial biomass, soil surface stability, threshold friction velocities (TFV; i.e. the wind speed required to move soil particles), and sediment yield than sites that had been more recently disturbed by military manoeuvres. After trampling, all sites showed a large drop in TFVs and a concomitant increase in sediment yield. Simple correlation analyses showed that the decline in TFVs and the rise in sediment yield were significantly related to cyanobacterial...
Agricultural landscapes are more sensitive to climatic variability than natural landscapes because tillage and grazing typically reduce water infiltration and increase rates and magnitudes of surface runoff. This paper evaluates how agricultural land use influenced the relative responsiveness of floods, erosion, and sedimentation to extreme and nonextreme hydrologic activity occurring in watersheds of the Upper Mississippi Valley. Temporally overlapping stratigraphic and historical instrumental records from southwestern Wisconsin and northwestern Illinois show how agricultural modification of a natural prairie and forest land cover affected the behavior of floods and sedimentation during the last two centuries....
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This data release contains point clouds obtained from three terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) surveys of a hillslope burned by the 2016 Fish Fire in the San Gabriel Mountains, CA, USA. The TLS surveys were completed with a Leica ScanStation C10. All point data are in local coordinates and the units are in meters. The first survey was made on 19 November 2016 prior to the first post-wildfire rainstorm. The second survey was performed on 5 January 2017. Two runoff-generating rainstorms occurred between the first and second surveys. The two rainstorms had peak fifteen-minute average rainfall intensities of 27 mm/h and 10 mm/h, respectively. The third survey was performed on 22 February 2017, following five additional...
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Post-fire rehabilitation seeding in the U.S. Intermountain West, primarily conducted by the Bureau of Land Management, is designed to reduce the risk of erosion and weed invasion while increasing desirable plant cover. Seeding effectiveness is typically monitored for three years following treatment, after which a closeout report is prepared. We evaluated 220 third-year closeout reports describing 214 aerial and 113 drill seedings implemented after wildfires from 2001 through 2006. Each treatment was assigned a qualitative success rating of good, fair, poor, or failure based on information in the reports. Seeding success varied by both treatment (aerial or drill) and year. Aerial seedings were rated 13.6% good, 18.3%...
Efforts to develop public programs to control soil erosion should not ignore other economic trends which may affect soil erosion. This programming analysis considers the impact of rising relative energy prices on cropland erosion in conjunction with alternative erosion control policies. Higher relative energy prices are found to reduce soil erosion significantly, complement soil loss restriction policies, and have an ambiguous impact on subsidies for soil erosion abatement.
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation; Tags: Effects, energy, prices, relative, soil erosion


    map background search result map search result map Wind erodibility of soils at Fort Irwin, California (Mojave Desert), USA, before and after trampling disturbance: implications for land management Fourmile Canyon Wildfire Longitudinal Profile Data Watershed potential erosion rate ranking system and check-dam placement suitability data within the Southern Rockies Landscape Conservation Cooperative (SRLCC) Las Lomas Hillside Lidar BLM REA NGB 2011 Water Erosion Potential Las Lomas Hillside Lidar Fourmile Canyon Wildfire Longitudinal Profile Data Wind erodibility of soils at Fort Irwin, California (Mojave Desert), USA, before and after trampling disturbance: implications for land management Watershed potential erosion rate ranking system and check-dam placement suitability data within the Southern Rockies Landscape Conservation Cooperative (SRLCC) BLM REA NGB 2011 Water Erosion Potential