Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Watershed Protection in Agricultural Environments: Integrated Social, Geomorphological, and Ecological Research to Support Ecosystem-based Stream Management
EPA Grant Number: R825306Title: Watershed Protection in Agricultural Environments: Integrated Social, Geomorphological, and Ecological Research to Support Ecosystem-based Stream Management
Investigators: Rhoads, Bruce L. , Herricks, Edwin E. , Wilson, David
Institution: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: January 1, 1997 through December 31, 1999 (Extended to December 31, 2000)
Project Amount: $350,000
RFA: Water and Watersheds Research (1996) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Watersheds , Water
Objective:
The project was based on two fundamental premises concerning watershed protection. The first contends that watershed protection, although dependent on science and engineering, is a process that is fundamentally social in nature. The second premise asserts that in watersheds dominated by intensive human utilization of natural resources, such as those in the Midwest, attempts to implement ecosystem-based stream management has been limited not only by social factors, but by incomplete scientific understanding of the connections between stream geomorphology and ecosystem integrity. These premises provide the foundation for two major research objectives. The first objective is to study the social dynamics of community-based watershed projects to find points of penetration for infusing scientific knowledge that informs ecosystem-based stream management into the social mechanisms by which empowered local stakeholders structure and restructure watersheds. The second objective is to develop an improved scientific understanding of the connections among geomorphological conditions, physical habitat, and fish community structure and function in human-modified agricultural streams. The inadequacy of current knowledge of these connections severely limits the capacity to effect substantial ecosystem-based protection of streams in the agricultural Midwest, even in cases where existing knowledge can be effectively incorporated into community-based decision making.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
The project adopted a four-pronged research design: (1) historical analysis of the attitudes and values of rural stakeholders toward water and watersheds in the agricultural Midwest; (2) social analysis of the mechanisms that facilitate and impede infusion of new scientific knowledge into local decisions about stream management in agricultural watersheds; (3) geographic information system (GIS) and field-based analysis of interrelations between geomorphological and ecological dynamics of human-modified agricultural stream systems at the watershed and reach scales; and (4) dissemination of scientific information from the geomorphological and ecological research to farmers and other local stakeholders.
Major findings of the historical analysis are that: (1) wetlands were initially perceived by white settlers of East Central Illinois as dangerous, sinful "wastelands" that were to be avoided; (2) all prairie in the region was seen as wet prairie; (3) prairies initially were utilized as pastures for cattle; (4) once the prairie sod was broken, the fertility of the land became evident and the attitude toward prairie changed from that of a perceived wasteland to a productive "Eden"; (5) the major impediment to productivity was wetness and, to overcome this impediment, widespread land drainage was initiated, first individually and later institutionally; (6) the rush to drain the prairie was reinforced by the notion of it as unproductive wasteland unless drained; (7) once drainage became institutionalized, drainage boosterism grew rapidly, promoting the cultural ideal of the progressive farmer as someone who attends to drainage to have a neat, productive farm, while at the same time maintaining a visual aesthetic of functional orderliness; and (8) this cultural identity has been continuously reproduced and reinforced over the past 150 years, leading to continued emphasis on the need for drainage to maintain productivity and aesthetic of drainage ditches as a proper aesthetic element of the well-kept farm.
The social analysis emphasized integration of physical and human aspects of the project. The focus was the diverse aspects of the social and scientific world?values, ethics, norms, technological sophistication, historical inheritance, and circumstance?as they converge on this specific sociocultural setting to structure and restructure land, streams, and water quality. Open-ended interviews were conducted with 74 farmers and stakeholders in four different watersheds between 1996 and 1998. The interviews focused on three critical issues: (1) farmer and stakeholder perception of watersheds as an agricultural, cultural, and aesthetic resource; (2) current usage and maintenance of watersheds; and (3) perceived best and relevant strategies for future usage and maintenance.
Major findings include: (1) established agricultural practices are infused by farmers with a variety of meanings: preservation of natural resources (conservation tillage, buffer strips), conservation of soil nutrients (crop rotation), mastery of nature and landscape (use of agricultural chemicals, land drainage), rural aesthetics (row cropping, mowing), commitment to the empirical (trial-and-error experimentation); (2) farmers listen and grant expert status to scientists, but often view them as insensitive to and removed from their everyday lives and practical concerns; (3) farmers greatly value streams for their role in land drainage; (4) practices associated with drainage are not motivated purely by economic considerations, but lie at the center of the social-cultural lifeworlds of farmers; (5) farmers distrust "environmentalists" and government officials, but avoid overt conflict (tend to ignore them); (6) farmers see themselves as the true environmentalists?stewards of the land who live and work on it; (7) farmers have a core set of distinctions: rural vs. urban, wise practitioners vs. ungrounded theorists, real vs. counterfeit environmentalists; and (8) farmers exhibit a distinctive sense of landscape aesthetics that pivots around human-made geometric order and regularity, including channelized streams (ditches) and field borders along ditches; this aesthetic, which is a component in the cultural identity of farmers, motivates farming practice to the same degree as economic considerations.
The geomorphological component of the research focused on GIS analysis of stream-channel change and on field investigations of fluvial dynamics of human-impacted agricultural steams with different channel morphologies. The results of the GIS analysis show that humans not only are an effective agent of geomorphic change within the upper Embarras River basin, but that channelization is an order of magnitude more efficacious than background rates of change associated with fluvial processes. Where change in channel position is manifest in the absence of direct channel modification, it is often due to a biophysical response to previous channelization at that location. Nevertheless, many straightened reaches of stream remain straight for decades following channelization, resulting in a persistent influence of human action on channel form. Instead of the stream channels being dominated by slow progressive change as occurs in meander migration, channel change in the Embarras basin is punctuated by catastrophic episodes associated with stream channelization.
Geomorphological field experiments were conducted to evaluate process-based dynamics of stream channels for a range of representative channel types in East Central Illinois. Field activities focused on: (1) measurements of three-dimensional flow structure at five field sites representative of a range of channel conditions in East Central Illinois; (2) repeat surveying of channel cross-sections to document channel dynamics within reach types; and (3) sampling of bed material and bedload to document the material properties of the channels at each site. A focused study examining differences between fluvial processes in juxtasposed straight and meandering reaches of the Embarras River has shown that: (1) flow in the meandering reach is highly three-dimensional compared to flow in the straight reach; (2) bed morphology is more diverse in the meandering reach than in the straight reach; and (3) rates of erosion and deposition are higher in the meandering reach than in the straight reach. This work also has established linkages between ecological and geomorphological conditions at two spatial scales in the straight and meandering reaches. At the planform-scale, the highly sinuous reach has greater geomorphological variability over time and space, resulting in greater habitat diversity, fish abundance, and fish biomass than the straight reach. At the bar-element scale, fish abundance and biomass are not different between pools and riffles; however, species composition is different between the two habitat units.
The ecological research and analysis can be divided into three elements: (1) development of an autecology matrix for fish in East Central Illinois; (2) completion of a sampling program that provided detailed fisheries community information for field sites; and (3) completion of focused sampling and analysis programs that supported integration of geomorphology and ecology. The autecology matrix provides a common "currency" for integrating ecological issues with geomorphological analysis, identifying data needs, and the development of hypotheses that led to focused field studies. It identifies habitat and ecological requirements for specific fish species in a readily accessible fashion. The matrix contains information for 198 fish species, providing data on species status, regional occurrence, water-body type, preferred habitat, spawning habitat, feeding habitat, moving habitat, and water quality tolerance.
Community-sampling of fish provided information on the year-round composition of the fisheries community, in the context of both resident and transient species in relation to a detailed assessment of the fish communities in headwater streams in Champaign County over the past century. The results provide a basis for predicting fish community composition within each watershed based on season and location. Hierarchical clustering techniques illustrate community associations based on location and seasonal hydraulic differences.
Focused studies included: (1) the development of habitat-specific fixed electrode fish-sampling techniques; (2) use of the fixed-electrode technique to develop a generalized sampling procedure for habitat-specific analysis; (3) high-intensity fish sampling to assess short-term temporal variability in sampling results; and (4) habitat comparisons in straight and meandering sections of the Embarras River. The results of these studies confirm that despite considerable spatial and temporal variability in sampling results, a direct link exists between geomorphological complexity of streams and fish size and abundance.
This project has produced an improved understanding of the attitudes of farmers towards watersheds and streams in East Central Illinois?a distinctive agricultural landscape in the midwestern United States. It has linked farmer identity with agricultural practices that have clear implications for environmental quality. It also has shown how attempts to influence these practices through exposure of farmers to scientific information on environmental consequences of specific actions must be conducted in a manner that recognizes the value systems of farmers and the difference between this value system and that of environmental scientists.
The research also has contributed to an improved scientific understanding of the connections among geomorphological conditions, physical habitat, and fish community structure and function in human-modified agricultural streams in East Central Illinois. In particular, the work demonstrates that the complexity of fluvial forms and processes, via its influence on habitat diversity, directly influences fish abundance and biomass. The research provides a foundation for attempts to naturalize fluvial systems in East Central Illinois through management approaches that preserve or enhance morphological, hydraulic, and ecological diversity of these systems.
Journal Articles on this Report : 4 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other project views: | All 18 publications | 6 publications in selected types | All 4 journal articles |
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Frothingham KM, Rhoads BL, Herricks EE. A multiscale conceptual framework for integrated ecogeomorphological research to support stream naturalization in the agricultural midwest. Environmental Management 2002;29(1):16-33. |
R825306 (Final) |
Exit Exit |
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Landwehr K, Rhoads BL. Depositional response of a headwater stream to channelization, East Central Illinois, USA. River Research and Applications 2003;19(1):77-100. |
R825306 (Final) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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Rhoads BL, Wilson D, Urban M, Herricks EE. Interaction between scientists and nonscientists in community-based watershed management: emergence of the concept of stream naturalization. Environmental Management 1999;24(3):297-308. |
R825306 (1998) R825306 (Final) R827148 (Final) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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Wilson D, Urban M, Graves M, Morrison D. Beyond the economic: farmer practices and identities in Central Illinois, USA. Great Lakes Geographer 2003;10(1):21-33. |
R825306 (Final) R825335 (Final) |
Exit Exit Exit |
Supplemental Keywords:
aquatic ecology, ecosystem-based stream management, fluvial geomorphology, social science, watershed protection., RFA, Scientific Discipline, Economic, Social, & Behavioral Science Research Program, Water, Geographic Area, Ecosystem Protection/Environmental Exposure & Risk, Water & Watershed, Midwest, Ecosystem/Assessment/Indicators, Ecosystem Protection, exploratory research environmental biology, Chemical Mixtures - Environmental Exposure & Risk, Ecological Effects - Environmental Exposure & Risk, Ecological Effects - Human Health, Ecology and Ecosystems, decision-making, Ecological Risk Assessment, Geology, Watersheds, Social Science, Economics & Decision Making, Ecological Indicators, anthropogenic processes, social science research, ecosystem valuation, risk assessment, agricultural watershed, community-based research, stream ecosystems, fisheries, hydrology, stream management, aquatic ecosystems, geomorphic, water quality, ecology assessment models, water management optionsRelevant Websites:
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.