Baseline assessment of the hydrological network and land use in riparian buffers of Pampean streams of Uruguay

The integrated assessment of stream networks and terrestrial land use contributes a critical foundation for understanding and mitigating potential impacts on stream ecology. Riparian zone delineation and management is a key component for regulating water quality, particularly in agricultural watersheds. We present a national assessment of riparian zone land uses according to stream order for the entire hydrological network in the Uruguayan landscape in Southeastern South America. We classified over 82,500 km of streams and rivers in Uruguay into seven Strahler order classes and delineated riparian buffers of 100 and 500 m, depending on stream order, covering a total of 13% of the terrestrial land area in Uruguay. Natural vegetation cover in riparian zones averaged 77% among basins, whereby natural grassland dominated first and second order stream buffers at 58% and 49%, respectively. This highlighted the importance of grasslands in headwater regions of the country. Riparian forests formed corridors along larger streams, representing a mere 9% of buffers in first order streams but reaching 46% of buffers of 6th order streams. Among the six major basins of Uruguay, we found differences in the relative importance of riparian forests and crop cover in headwater stream riparian zones, as well as differences in relative crop cover within riparian zones. Results show that streams in subtropical grassland landscapes originate in open grassland environments, which has major implications for thermal regimes, carbon inputs, and stream biodiversity. Riparian buffer management should consider geographic differences among different basins and ecoregions within Uruguay.