IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i16p6461-d397337.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Riparian Land-Use, Stream Morphology and Streambank Erosion within Grazed Pastures in Southern Iowa, USA: A Catchment-Wide Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Mustafa Tufekcioglu

    (Faculty of Forestry, Artvin Coruh University, Seyitler Campus, Artvin 08000, Turkey)

  • Richard C. Schultz

    (Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Iowa State University, 339 Science Hall II, Ames, IA 50011, USA)

  • Thomas M. Isenhart

    (Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Iowa State University, 339 Science Hall II, Ames, IA 50011, USA)

  • John L. Kovar

    (USDA-ARS National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment, Ames, IA 50011, USA)

  • James R. Russell

    (Department of Animal Science, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA)

Abstract

Factors influencing streambank erosion at the field/reach scale include both watershed and riparian land-uses, stream hydrology and channel morphology at the catchment scale. This study assesses the relationship of riparian land-uses, stream morphologic characteristics and catchment scale variables to streambank erosion within grazed riparian pastures in the Southern Iowa Drift Plain. Thirteen cooperating beef cow–calf farms and their catchments ranging from 2.5 to 12.9 km 2 in the Rathbun Lake watershed in South Central Iowa (USA) were chosen to conduct this study. Results suggest that the integration of stream morphologic characteristics and riparian land-uses at both the reach and catchment scale are necessary to explain the current level of streambank erosion measured at the reach scale. Larger catchment size or catchments with more total channel length were found to experience more bank erosion at the reach scale. A significant positive relationship between percent sand-and-silt in the bank soil and bank erosion rates implies that bank soils with less cohesiveness are more erodible. Catchment-scale assessments of the thirteen watersheds showed that within the 50 m corridor on both sides of the stream, 46 to 61% of riparian area was devoted to agricultural use and only 6 to 11% was in ungrazed perennial vegetation, much of it enrolled in the USDA Conservation Reserve Program. Overall, this and previous Rathbun watershed studies have shown that intensive agricultural use of riparian areas over such extents of time and scale could be directly (in field scale) and/or indirectly (watershed scale) related to excessive amounts of streambank erosion (ranging from 8.6 to 38.3 cm/yr) to receiving streams and lakes leading to their impairment and reduction in ecological services. Exclusion of cattle grazing in the riparian areas along buffered stream lengths (2.1% of the total watershed area) of the Rathbun watershed would reduce this impact. This approach could also be applicable to other similar watersheds with extensive land-use under grazed management.

Suggested Citation

  • Mustafa Tufekcioglu & Richard C. Schultz & Thomas M. Isenhart & John L. Kovar & James R. Russell, 2020. "Riparian Land-Use, Stream Morphology and Streambank Erosion within Grazed Pastures in Southern Iowa, USA: A Catchment-Wide Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-13, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:16:p:6461-:d:397337
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/16/6461/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/16/6461/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carina B. Colman & Paulo Tarso S. Oliveira & André Almagro & Britaldo S. Soares-Filho & Dulce B. B. Rodrigues, 2019. "Effects of Climate and Land-Cover Changes on Soil Erosion in Brazilian Pantanal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-16, December.
    2. Dao Nguyen Khoi & Van Thinh Nguyen & Truong Thao Sam & Pham Thi Thao Nhi, 2019. "Evaluation on Effects of Climate and Land-Use Changes on Streamflow and Water Quality in the La Buong River Basin, Southern Vietnam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-15, December.
    3. Miller, J. & Chanasyk, D. & Curtis, T. & Entz, T. & Willms, W., 2010. "Influence of streambank fencing with a cattle crossing on riparian health and water quality of the Lower Little Bow River in Southern Alberta, Canada," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 247-258, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mehmet Yavuz & Mustafa Tufekcioglu, 2023. "Assessment of Flood-Induced Geomorphic Changes in Sidere Creek of the Mountainous Basin Using Small UAV-Based Imagery," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-21, July.
    2. George N. Zaimes & Valasia Iakovoglou, 2020. "Assessing Riparian Areas of Greece—An Overview," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-19, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lingxia Wang & Zhongwu Li & Danyang Wang & Xiaoqian Hu & Ke Ning, 2020. "Self-Organizing Map Network-Based Soil and Water Conservation Partitioning for Small Watersheds: Case Study Conducted in Xiaoyang Watershed, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-17, March.
    2. Curtis L. Rollins & Stephanie R. Simpson & Peter C. Boxall, 2018. "Evaluating an Agricultural Extension Program Aimed at Improving Biodiversity in Alberta, Canada," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 66(2), pages 331-353, June.
    3. Xiaowei Guo & Licong Dai & Qian Li & Dawen Qian & Guangmin Cao & Huakun Zhou & Yangong Du, 2020. "Light Grazing Significantly Reduces Soil Water Storage in Alpine Grasslands on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-12, March.
    4. Wenhui Bao & Xingyu Zeng & Chunyu Luo & Hongqiang Zhang & Yi Qu & Nan Xu, 2022. "The Relationship between Hydrological Connectivity Changes Inside and Outside Biodiversity Hotspots and Its Implication for Sustainable Environmental Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-14, May.
    5. Yuk San Liew & Safari Mat Desa & Md. Nasir Md. Noh & Mou Leong Tan & Nor Azazi Zakaria & Chun Kiat Chang, 2021. "Assessing the Effectiveness of Mitigation Strategies for Flood Risk Reduction in the Segamat River Basin, Malaysia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-23, March.
    6. Lkhaakhuu Nyamjav & Soninkhishig Nergui & Byambakhuu Gantumur & Munkhtsetseg Zorigt & Roland Jansson, 2024. "Long-Term Response of Floodplain Meadow Normalized Difference Vegetation Index to Hydro-Climate and Grazing Pressure: Tamir River Plains, Mongolia," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-14, May.
    7. Catherine C. Sang & Daniel O. Olago & Tobias O. Nyumba & Robert Marchant & Jessica P. R. Thorn, 2022. "Assessing the Underlying Drivers of Change over Two Decades of Land Use and Land Cover Dynamics along the Standard Gauge Railway Corridor, Kenya," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-21, May.
    8. Horak, Cristina Natalia & Assef, Yanina Andrea & Miserendino, María Laura, 2019. "Assessing effects of confined animal production systems on water quality, ecological integrity, and macroinvertebrates at small piedmont streams (Patagonia, Argentina)," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 242-253.
    9. Mengfan Cai & Chunjiang An & Christophe Guy & Chen Lu, 2020. "Assessment of Soil and Water Conservation Practices in the Loess Hilly Region Using a Coupled Rainfall-Runoff-Erosion Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-18, January.
    10. Junchao Jiang & Leting Lyu & Yuechi Han & Caizhi Sun, 2021. "Effect of Climate Variability on Green and Blue Water Resources in a Temperate Monsoon Watershed, Northeastern China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-13, February.
    11. Miller, J. & Chanasyk, D. & Curtis, T. & Entz, T. & Willms, W., 2011. "Environmental quality of Lower Little Bow River and riparian zone along an unfenced reach with off-stream watering," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(10), pages 1505-1515, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:16:p:6461-:d:397337. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.