Stream Habitats and Aquatic Communities in an Agricultural Watershed: Changes Related to a Mandatory Riparian Buffer Law.
Riparian buffers along streams can intercept eroding soils, contaminants, and nutrients, improving stream habitats and increasing the health of aquatic communities. Instream and riparian habitats and fish and benthic invertebrate communities were surveyed in a Minnesota stream draining an agricultur...
| Published in: | Environmental Management Vol. 72; no. 5; pp. 945 - 959 |
|---|---|
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
Springer Nature
Nov2023
|
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=172020453&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 172020453 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 0364152X O5H jtl: Environmental Management issn: 0364152X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Nov2023 vid: 72 iid: 5 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature place: New York, New York artinfo: ui: 172020453 167359415 10.1007/s00267-023-01864-3 172020453 ppf: 945 ppct: 14 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P tig: atl: Stream Habitats and Aquatic Communities in an Agricultural Watershed: Changes Related to a Mandatory Riparian Buffer Law. aug: au: Mundahl, Neal D. Varela, Will L. Weaver, Cole Mundahl, Erik D. Cochran-Biederman, Jennifer L. affil: https://ror.org/00kmxt141 Large River Studies Center, Department of Biology and Southeastern Minnesota Water Resources Center, Winona State University, 55987, Winona, MN, USA sug: ab: Riparian buffers along streams can intercept eroding soils, contaminants, and nutrients, improving stream habitats and increasing the health of aquatic communities. Instream and riparian habitats and fish and benthic invertebrate communities were surveyed in a Minnesota stream draining an agricultural watershed before and after implementation of a state-mandated buffer law passed in 2014 and aimed at protecting water quality. Intensive habitat assessments, electrofishing, and benthic invertebrate sampling were used at the same 13 sites in 2005 and 2018. Average buffer width nearly doubled between surveys, and instream abundance of fine sediments and embeddedness of coarse substrates by fine sediments both declined significantly within 1 to 3 years of buffer establishment. Stream sites also were significantly deeper with faster current velocities, and sites had increased riffle habitat and increased instream vegetative cover for fish after buffer mandates. However, fish and invertebrate biotic integrity scores, and other biotic community metrics, did not display significant improvements after buffer establishment. Stream habitats appear to improve quickly when intact and continuous riparian buffers insulate streams from surrounding agricultural activities, but improvements in biotic communities likely will require more time to adapt to changed habitat conditions. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|