Estimating water quality effects of conservation practices and grazing land use scenarios

Wilson, Grace L.; Dalzell, B. J.; Mulla, D. J.; Dogwiler, Toby; Porter, Paul M.

doi:10.2489/jswc.69.4.330

Cited by 26 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…The predictions are in agreement with the findings of Wilson et al. (2014), who obtained >85% reduction of P and sediment loss by changing land use from row crop to pasture in a karst watershed. Restored wetland, via conversion of cropland to forested wetland, had much lower N leaching and denitrification than cropland.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 91%

Addressing the spatial disconnect between national‐scale total maximum daily loads and localized land management decisions

Amin

Veith²,

Shortle

et al. 2020

J of Env Quality

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Regulatory watershed mitigation programs typically emphasize widespread adoption of best management practices (BMPs) to meet total maximum daily load (TMDL) goals. To comply with the Chesapeake Bay TMDL, jurisdictions must develop watershed implementation plans (WIPs) to determine the number and type of BMPs to implement. However, the spatial resolution of the bay-level model used to determine these load reduction goals is so coarse that the regulatory plan cannot consider heterogeneity in local conditions, which affects BMP effectiveness. Using the Topo-SWAT modification of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), we simulated two BMP adoption scenarios in the Spring Creek watershed in central Pennsylvania to determine if leveraging fine-scale spatial heterogeneity to place BMPs could achieve the same (or better) nutrient and sediment reduction at a lower cost than the state-level WIP BMP adoption recommendations. Topo-SWAT was initialized with detailed land use and management practice information, systematically calibrated, and validated against 12 yr of observed data. After determining individual BMP cost effectiveness, results were ranked to design a cost-effective BMP adoption scenario that achieved equal or greater load reduction as the WIP scenario for 74% of the cost using eight management-based BMPs: no-till, manure injection, cover cropping, riparian buffers, land retirement, manure application timing, wetland restoration, and nitrogen management (15% less N input). Because watersheds of this size typically represent the smallest modeling unit in the Chesapeake Bay Model, results demonstrate the potential to use watershed models with finer inference scales to improve recommendations for BMP implementation under the Chesapeake Bay TMDL.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 91%

Addressing the spatial disconnect between national‐scale total maximum daily loads and localized land management decisions

Amin

Veith²,

Shortle

et al. 2020

J of Env Quality

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“…To offset this low price, the municipal government of Mengzi has combined flower-viewing with pear planting, similar to family farms with rural experiential tourism [44]. Previous studies have shown that converting annual crops to perennial grass increases above-ground biomass and the ability to retain soil but reduces annual income because the price per unit weight decreases [45,46]. The further conversion of grassland to forest will increase total soil nitrogen, litter, and soil microorganisms and significantly improve regulation and supporting services [47].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation and Tradeoff Analysis of Ecosystem Service for Typical Land-Use Patterns in the Karst Region of Southwest China

Zou

Zeng

Wang

et al. 2020

Forests

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Although many land-use patterns have been established to restore vegetation and eliminate poverty in the karst area in southwest China, the ecosystem services (ESs) of these patterns are still not fully understood. To compare the differences in seven typical monoculture patterns and three agroforestry patterns, their ESs and tradeoffs were analyzed within the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Framework. Compared with the local traditional corn pattern, the marigold pattern improved provisioning, regulating, and cultural services by >100%. The pomegranate pattern provided far more provisioning services than the other patterns. The apple + soybean intercropping pattern reduced regulating services, and eventually, its Total ESs (TES) and ecosystem multifunctionality index (EMF) also decreased. Cultural services will be enhanced by the introduction of fruit trees, as well as intercropping. Orange + peach had the greatest negative tradeoffs between provisioning and regulating services (P-R), provisioning and supporting services (P-S), and provisioning and cultural services (P-C), which indicates that the provisioning services urgently require improvement. Peach + pumpkin intercropping decreased the negative tradeoffs of P-R, P-S, and P-C (all > 10%), while pomegranate + grass intercropping increased the negative tradeoffs of R-S and R-C (all > 100%). Our results suggest that all six of these patterns are worthy of promotion but the pomegranate pattern should be given priority. Among the three intercropping patterns studied herein, the apple + soybean pattern should be redesigned to improve performance.

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“…For instance, recent research increasingly highlights the environmental benefits of permanent grassland. These include more efficient protection of water compared to, for example, buffer strips on AL (Wilson et al ., ). For these reasons, we consider it essential to take into account the prevalence in each region of certain types of farming systems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The Geographic Distribution and Characterisation of EU Arable Land Affected by the ‘Greening’ of the Common Agricultural Policy

2016

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Summary The reformed Common Agricultural Policy includes a mandatory ‘greening’ component for direct payments, implementation of which has started in 2015. Two of the measures introduced (crop diversification and ecological focus area) will not be applied in holdings with AL below specific thresholds (10, 15 and 30 ha). This article uses statistical data on different territories and agricultural systems in order to assess the possible impacts of these exclusions. It investigates if and in which regions this exemption may generate a theoretical loss of environmental protection, depending on farming systems and current level of semi‐natural vegetation. The analysis sketches a complex picture and highlights the regions where the exclusion from these two measures may generate greater issues. Noticeably, considering those regions where there is a major prevalence of specialist cereals farming systems, these greening measures concern 97 per cent of all AL. Regions with current low values of semi‐natural vegetation where more than half of AL is exempt from greening are relatively few. Member States may consider adopting specific targeted policy in these regions. Applying a set of decision thresholds to fine‐tune the analysis, the GIS created could be used as a decision support tool by national and regional authorities.

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Estimating water quality effects of conservation practices and grazing land use scenarios

Cited by 26 publications

References 33 publications

Addressing the spatial disconnect between national‐scale total maximum daily loads and localized land management decisions

Addressing the spatial disconnect between national‐scale total maximum daily loads and localized land management decisions

Evaluation and Tradeoff Analysis of Ecosystem Service for Typical Land-Use Patterns in the Karst Region of Southwest China

The Geographic Distribution and Characterisation of EU Arable Land Affected by the ‘Greening’ of the Common Agricultural Policy

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