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EFFECTS OF AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES AND BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON WATER QUALITY OF SEASONAL PRAIRIE POTHOLE WETLANDS
Citation:
Detenbeck, N E., C M. Elonen, D L. Taylor, A M. Cotter, F. A. Puglisi, AND W. D. Sanville. EFFECTS OF AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES AND BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON WATER QUALITY OF SEASONAL PRAIRIE POTHOLE WETLANDS. WETLANDS 10(4):335-354, (2002).
Description:
Long-term effectsof within-basin tillage can constrain condition and function of prairie wetlands even after uplands are restored. Runoff was significantly greater to replicate wetlands within tilled basins with or without vegetated buffer strips as compared to ConsrvationReserve Program (CRP) jcontrols with revegated uplands. However, mean water levels for native prairie reference sites were higher than fo CRP controls, because infiltration rates were lower for native prairie basins, which had no prior history to tillage. Nutrient dynamics changed more in response to changes in water level and vegetation structure than to increased nutrient inputs in watershed runoff. Dissolved oxygen increased between dry and wet years except in basins or zones with dense vegetation. As sediment redox dropped, water-column phosphate declined as phosphate likely co-precipitated with iron on the sediment surface with open-water or sparsely vegetated zones. In response, N:P ratios shifted from a region indicating N limitation to near P limitation. CRP sites, with dense vegetation and low DO, also maintained high DOC, which maintains phosphate in solution through chelation of iron and catalysis of photoreduction.