The objective of this project was to explore national-scale data relationships between land use, primarily variables pertaining to agricultural production, and in-stream biotic conditions in the mainland U.S. Using the Causal Analysis/Diagnosis Decision Information System (CADDIS) and data from the USGS National Water Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA), benthic macroinvertebrate observed versus predicted (O/E) index values were analyzed against a number of land use and habitat variables in 115 sites across the U.S. Constituent loads, or the mass amounts of a chemical constituent entering the waterway per year, were estimated for each site using the USGS LOADEST program and were evaluated with respect to macroinvertebrate O/E and land use values. Relationships between variables, defined causally through CADDIS, were analyzed using simple linear regression to avoid analytical bias. Regression analyses indicated that forest and urban land cover were significantly correlated to macroinvertebrate O/E values (p = 0.0012 and p < 0.001). Consistent and relatively strong positive correlations were found between land use and nutrient loading (p < 0.001 for all constituents). However, contrary to expectations, no correlation was observed between agricultural land use and O/E values, while negative correlations were observed between all nutrient loading variables and O/E values. These national-scale data support the complex process relationship between agricultural land use and benthic macroinvertebrate condition.

The demand for urban green space is increasing while availability is decreasing. The value of urban green space is that it conserves critical characteristics of the natural landscape within the urban setting. The characteristics are essential for the function of ecological processes necessary for the sustainability of an ecosystem. These goods and services we extract from ecosystems are called ecological services. The goal of this project was to demonstrate the technologies and methods by which ecological services could be restored in a disturbed urban stream system. Specific objectives included bio-retention of storm water and parking lot runoff, re-establishment of fish pool habitat, implementation of natural bank stabilization, integration of riparian zone buffers, and regulation of stream geometry for maximum in-stream ecological services. We designed off-channel subsurface bio-retention cells to reduce pollution loading to the stream from a nearby parking lot and to maximize retention volume of water in the cells to recharge stream base flow. We integrated the bio-retention cell infiltration zones with the geomorphologic design of the stream channel to provide conditions desirable for fish and other aquatic communities as well as to discourage algae blooms and mosquito infestation. We designed riparian zones with native flora to provide needed habitat for terrestrial animal communities. Finally, we used natural bank stabilization features such as root wads, native tree logs, and boulders to reduce bank erosion and channel entrenchment and to enhance refugia for aquatic organisms.

Although ecosystem services have been identified to be declining over the previous decades, there is no clear methodology of evaluating the impacts of land use change on ecosystem services. This paper presents a methodology for quantifying and assessing changes in multiple ecosystems services as a result of land use change using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model. The model was used to map and quantify biodiversity and foul-ecosystem services for Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire for 2000, 2005 and 2009 land use conditions: water yield, carbon storage, nutrient retention, and sediment retention. The study developed a suite of indices to analyze land use change impacts on the status, change and spatial patterns of multiple ecosystem services. On a national scale, the results show a mix of increases in service (water yield, N retention and P retention in Ghana, and, N and P retention in Cote d'Ivoire), little change in services (sediment retention in Ghana and sediment retention and water yield in Cote d'Ivoire) and decreases in services (biodiversity and carbon storage in both countries) from 2000 to 2009. The assessment illustrates a methodology that can be employed by land managers in exploring multiple management scenarios and their implications for multiple ecosystem services change: (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Water resource impacts from US dairy production include water use (scarcity impacts) and water quality (eutrophication impacts). These impacts are location-specific, depending upon characteristics of the region and watershed where on-farm dairy and feed production occurs. The objectives of this analysis were to evaluate the impact of US on-farm dairy production on water scarcity across the US, and evaluate dairy production's impact on eutrophication processes within watersheds as well as on the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone. The primary water-utilization challenge for dairy producers is irrigation for growing feed rather than on-farm use. Most dairy production in the US does not occur in water stressed areas with the exception of production in some western states. The potential impacts on local (P pollution) and regional (N pollution to the Gulf of Mexico) watershed eutrophication are more likely to occur from feed production than from on-farm dairy activities.

Land use change is a major driver of ecosystem service change. Urbanization and agricultural activities play substantial roles in altering the state of ecosystem services. This study examined impact of land use change on ecosystem services in a typical agricultural watershed in northwest Arkansas. Biodiversity and ecosystem services – carbon storage, water yield, nutrient cycling – were mapped and quantified for a typical small dairy farm and its watershed for predevelopment (1800) and current (2006) land-use scenarios. Field-level impacts showed that dairy operations resulted in reduced land use change on ecosystem service loss, compared with the overall watershed. The results also indicated substantial change in carbon storage, water yield, and biodiversity; while nutrient cycling showed a low net change. The methodology illustrates the utility of evaluating impact of land management scenarios (historic, current, potential) on ecosystem services at the field and watershed scale, and the need for standard metrics across landscapes.

Water quality in the Osage Creek tributary to the Illinois River was examined from fall 2007-2009 following US Environmental Protection Agency Rapid Bioassessment Protocols and Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) methods at two reference and eight test sites including up- and down-stream of Rogers and Springdale, Arkansas Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTPs). Study sites were in the Springfield Plateau of the Ozark Plateaus ecoregion. Comparison of test sites with reference streams indicated generally depressed environmental quality below WWTPs, but nutrient concentrations and biotic indicators improved significantly downstream. While upstream and downstream sites differed, ADEQ criteria were not violated by the WWTPs. Total phosphorus was significantly related to periphyton biomass (r2 = 0.15, p = 0.006) and grazing fish densities (r2 = 0.11, p = 0.02), but not strongly. Fish and invertebrate Indices of Biotic Integrity (IBI) compared favorably with each other (r2 = 0.28, p <0.03). Critical and primary season IBIs were not different (p = 0.48-0.58). Habitat was related to IBIs as well as nutrient levels. A stepwise model of factors predicting densities of primary feeding fish selected only total phosphorus and % canopy cover (r2 = 0.29, p = 0.0006).

The objective of the study was to identify nutrient impacts, if any, on stream periphyton growth in Black Bear Creek (north central Oklahoma) and its tributaries. Passive diffusion periphytometers were deployed at ten study sites within the Black Bear Creek basin to evaluate periphyton growth in response to nutrient enrichment. These sites were selected to represent a gradient of land uses, from predominantly agricultural to predominantly urban. Periphytometer treatments included phosphorus (P) (1.0mg/L PO4-P, n=10), nitrogen (N) (10.0mg/L NO3-N, n=10), N plus P (n=10) and control (reverse osmosis-treated water, n=10). Results indicated that average dissolved inorganic N (DIN, PQL=0.04mg/L) concentrations were significantly correlated (R2=0.63, p<0.01) with chlorophyll a production on the periphytometer control treatments in the Black Bear Creek basin. Periphytic growth was nutrient-limited (increased chlorophyll a was measured on nutrient-enriched growth media) at four of the ten sites sampled; two sites were limited by N and two sites were co-limited by both N and P. The lotic ecosystem trophic status index (LETSI), the ratio of C to N+P chlorophyll a, was calculated to compare treatment responses across sites. At nutrient-limited sites, LETSI was positively correlated to ambient DIN values (R2=0.97, p<0.01). However, some sites that were not nutrient-limited had ambient nutrient concentrations similar to sites with observed nutrient limitation, indicating other factors were limiting periphyton growth at those sites.