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The purpose of the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) cropland national assessment is to quantify the environmental benefits of conservation programs at the regional and national levels, which include both onsite and instream water quality benefits. Modeling is an effective tool for environmental assessment at the regional and national scale due to the complexities in nature at this scale. Two simulation models, the Agricultural Policy Environmental extender (APEX) and the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), were used for the CEAP cropland national assessment. A subset of National Resources Inventory (NRI) sample points was selected to serve as "representative fields" for the CEAP cropland survey...
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Synopsis: This article outlines how wetlands can significantly reduce flooding in the Upper Mississippi watershed. The authors first provide a historical context by estimating the original and lost wetland storage capacities of the Upper Mississippi and Missouri River Basins. Historically, about 10% of the basin would have been classified as wetland in 1780. By 1980, wetland acreage had been reduced to only 4% of the basin, representing about 26 million acres of wetlands eliminated since 1780. The area of wetland restoration required to reduce the risk of future flooding adequately was estimated based on the total amount of excess floodwater beyond bank-full discharge that passed through the City of St. Louis during...
Conclusions:Wetlands and riparian zones should be strategically placed in watersheds to optimize nitrogen removal, as, for example, in tile-drained farmlands prone to high concentrations of nitrateThresholds/Learnings:Restoring 10 million hectares of riparian zones and wetlands, representing 3.4% of the Mississippi River basin, would reduce nitrogen in the Mississippi River Basin and its tributaries by an average of 40%
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Fish occurrence data to support high-resolution distribution models and test various community and macroecological hypotheses have not been available at the national scale. We present IchthyMaps, a database of high-quality historical fish occurrences covering fishes of the conterminous United States. Designed on the principles of metacommunity ecology, IchthyMaps is a compilation of presence records from atlases up to 1990, at the resolution of the 1:100,000 National Hydrography Database Plus (NHDPlus) inter-confluence stream segment, readily aggregated into hierarchically coarser units (e.g. hydrologic unit code 8-digit and 12-digit watersheds). IchthyMaps contains about 606,550 presence records for 1,038 species...
Categories: Data, Publication; Types: Citation; Tags: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Biological Data, Biological sampling, All tags...
This investigation was designed to estimate the mass loading of nitrate (NO3−) and herbicides in spring water discharging from groundwater basins in an agriculturally dominated, mantled karst terrain. The loading was normalized to land use and NO3− and herbicide losses were compared to estimated losses in other agricultural areas of the Midwestern USA. Our study area consisted of two large karst springs that drain two adjoining groundwater basins (total area of 37.7 km2) in southwestern Illinois' sinkhole plain, USA. The springs and stream that they form were monitored for almost 2 years. Nitrate–nitrogen (NO3–N) concentrations at three monitoring sites were almost always above the background concentration (1.9...
Conclusions:When riparian vegetation is maintained in areas of intensive agriculture, suspended solids levels are generally lower due to reduced in-stream organic production. Sediment deposition in near stream areas and stream bank scour are also reduced when riparian vegetation is present.Thresholds/Learnings:
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Separate data for floodplain elevation and bathymetry were collected on the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS) by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) program. While many information needs can be met by using these data separately, in many cases seamless elevation data across the river and its floodplain are needed. This seamless elevation surface was generated by merging lidar (i.e., floodplain elevation) and bathymetry data. Merging the data required special processing in the areas of transition between the two sources of data.
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Separate data for floodplain elevation and bathymetry were collected on the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS) by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) program. While many information needs can be met by using these data separately, in many cases seamless elevation data across the river and its floodplain are needed. This seamless elevation surface was generated by merging lidar (i.e., floodplain elevation) and bathymetry data. Merging the data required special processing in the areas of transition between the two sources of data.
Conclusions:Results indicate that breeding bird species richness patterns significantly increased with fragment size. Area-sensitive species required patches of suitable habitat at least 5-55 ha in size. Edge and vegetation-restricted species were more affected by overall habitat loss of habitat than reductions in average patch size.Thresholds/Learnings:Area-sensitive species required patches of suitable habitat at least 5-55 ha in size, and regularly avoided smaller grassland fragments even when they were composed of suitable habitat
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The purpose of this map is to provide a georeferenced characterization of vegetation in the early stages of Euro-American settlement. One of the research uses for the surveys nationally is for presettlement vegetation. This data can be used to analyze presettlement vegetation patterns for the purpose of determining natural community potential, productivity indexes, and patterns of natural disturbance. The area of the original plat maps were townships; use of the data at a larger scale would not be appropriate.In Illinois, the surveys began in 1804 and were largely completed by 1843. The surveyors moved across the state laying out a rectangular grid system, known as the Public Land Survey System (PLS or PLSS). They...
Conclusions:Unsuitable habitat surrounding a patch of suitable habitat creates islands of high species density from which successful dispersion becomes difficult. Therefore, habitat surrounding a patch, rather than the quality of the patch itself, may be a more important determining factor of species abundance.Thresholds/Learnings:
    map background search result map search result map Flood reduction through wetand restoration: the Upper Mississippi River Basin as a case history. Historical Stream Fish Distribution Database for the Conterminous United States (1950-1990): IchthyMaps Illinois - Presettlement Vegetation UMRR Pool 13 Topobathy UMRR Pool 21 Topobathy UMRR Pool 21 Topobathy UMRR Pool 13 Topobathy Illinois - Presettlement Vegetation Flood reduction through wetand restoration: the Upper Mississippi River Basin as a case history. Historical Stream Fish Distribution Database for the Conterminous United States (1950-1990): IchthyMaps