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Developing Landscape Level Indicators for Predicting Watershed Condition
Citation:
Kuhn, A., Jim Lake, J. Serbst, N. Smucker, AND M. Charpentier. Developing Landscape Level Indicators for Predicting Watershed Condition. Presented at U.S. Regional Association of the International Association for Landscape Ecology (US-IALE) Annual Symposium, Austin, TX, April 14 - 18, 2013.
Impact/Purpose:
The objective of this research is to develop methods and indicators that will contribute to national assessments of watershed and aquatic resource condition. The basic approach will be to develop watershed indicators that incorporate information on natural infrastructure (natural and undeveloped areas necessary to maintain and support aquatic ecosystems) and stressors (human and natural) and relate these to indicators of aquatic condition (including indicators of stream, lake, wetland, and estuarine condition). Once validated, these watershed indicators could then be used to map watershed and aquatic resource condition nationally. Further, relationships between indicators of stress and natural infrastructure (e.g., the independent variables) and indicators of aquatic condition (response variables) could be used to assess risk to aquatic resources and potential benefits of restoration.
Description:
Drainage basins (watersheds) exert a strong influence on the condition of water bodies such as streams and lakes. Watersheds and associated aquatic systems respond differently to stressors (e.g., land use change) or restoration activities depending on the climatic setting, bedrock geology, soils, topography, hydrologic connectivity, and wetland distribution. This research focuses on developing landscape level watershed indicators that incorporate information on natural infrastructure and stressors (human and natural) and relate these to indicators of aquatic condition. The Narragansett Bay Watershed (NBW) located in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts, has been chosen as an intensively monitored case study watershed for this research. The NBW is one of the most densely populated watersheds in the United States, with almost 1,000 people/mi2. This presentation will describe the development of landscape indicators reflecting aquatic condition specifically in streams. We used stable isotopes of δ15N and δ13C, in periphyton, macroinvertebrates and fish to examine their potential use as aquatic indicators of the sources and effects of nutrients and carbon from urban areas on stream ecosystems. An additional area of focus examines the effects of riparian buffer condition in reducing (intact highly vegetated) or exacerbating (degraded buffers) urban effects on stream ecosystems.