Soil & Water Res., 2013, 8(3):113-123 | DOI: 10.17221/45/2012-SWR

Effects of agricultural conservation practices on oxbow lake watersheds in the Mississippi River alluvial plainOriginal Paper

Scott Stephen KNIGHT, Martin Anderson LOCKE, Sammie SMITH Jr.
National Sedimentation Laboratory, USDA-ARS, Oxford, USA

Agricultural lands are considered to be a major source of nonpoint source pollutants such as sediment, pesticides and nutrients in the United States. Conservation practices have been tested for their effectiveness in reducing agricultural related pollutants on smaller scales, but farm watershed scale assessments of these practices are limited and few of these have evaluated the impacts on downstream ecology. Several projects focused on oxbow lake watersheds in the Mississippi River alluvial plain were designed to utilize working farms to evaluate primary pollutants in water resources and to identify conservation practices that are most effective in reducing the transport of those pollutants in surface and ground water on a watershed scale. Major findings of these studies include: (1) conservation practices reduced sediment in oxbow lakes, resulting in improved water clarity, plankton growth, and fish stocks; (2) total phosphorus in lakes decreased between 39-50% following application of conservation practices; (3) conservation tillage and cover crops reduced NO3-N losses by 73%, sediment losses by 70; and (4) riparian areas mitigated the transport of sediment in runoff and enhanced the degradation of pesticides.

Keywords: limnology; management systems evaluation area; nutrients; pesticides; sediment; water quality

Published: September 30, 2013  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago Chicago Notes IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
KNIGHT SS, LOCKE MA, SMITH S. Effects of agricultural conservation practices on oxbow lake watersheds in the Mississippi River alluvial plain. Soil & Water Res. 2013;8(3):113-123. doi: 10.17221/45/2012-SWR.
Share...
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. American Public Health Association (APHA) (1992): Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Waste Water. 18th Ed. APHA, Washington.
    2. Brown C.D., Hoyer M.V., Bachmann R.V., Canfield D.E., Jr. (2000): Nutrient-chlorophyll relationships: an evaluation of empirical nutrient-chlorophyll models using Florida and north-temperate lake data. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 57: 1574-1583. Go to original source...
    3. Canfield D.E., Jr. (1983): Prediction of chlorophyll a concentrations in Florida lakes: the importance of phosphorus and nitrogen. Water Resources Bulletin, 19: 255-262. Go to original source...
    4. Cooper C.M., Bacon E.J. (1980): Effects of suspended sediments on primary productivity in Lake Chicot, Arkansas. In: Proc. Symp. Surface Water Impoundments. June 2-5, 1980, Minneapolis, Vol. 2, 1357-1367.
    5. Cooper C.M., McHenry J.R. (1989): Sediment accumulation and its effects on a Mississippi oxbow lake. Environmental and Geological Water Science, 13: 33-37. Go to original source...
    6. Cooper C.M., Knight S.S., Schiebe F.R., Ritchie J.R. (1995): Restoration of Lake Chicot, Arkansas. Advances in Hydro-Science and Engineering, 2: 1497-1504.
    7. Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (1992): Water Quality - Agriculture's Role. [Task Force Report No. 120.] Ames.
    8. Cullum R.F., Knight S.S., Cooper C.M., Smith S. (2006): Combined effects of best management practices on water quality in oxbow lakes from agricultural watersheds. Soil & Tillage Research, 90: 212-221. Go to original source...
    9. Dubrovsky N.M., Burrow K.R., Clark G.M., Gronberg J.M., Hammilton P.A., Hitt K.J., Mueller D.K., Munn M.D., Nolan B.T., Puckett L.J., Rupert M.G., Short T.M., Spahr N.E., Sprague L.A., Wilber W.G. (2010): The Quality of Our Nation's WaSoil & Water Res., 8, 2013 (3): 113-123 ters - Nutrients in the Nation's Streams and Groundwater, 1992-2004. U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1350, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston. Go to original source...
    10. Ground T.A. Groeger A.W. (1994): Chemical classification and trophic characteristics of Texas reservoirs. Lake and Reservoir Management, 10: 189-201. Go to original source...
    11. Heatherly T., Whiles M.R., Royer T.V., David M.B. (2007): Relationships between habitat quality, water quality, and macroinvertebrate assemblages in Illinois streams. Journal of Environmental Quality, 36: 1653-1660. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    12. Herbert D.W.M., Merkins J.C. (1961): The effect of suspended mineral solids on the survival of trout. International Journal of Air and Water Pollution, 5: 46-55.
    13. Jones J.R.E. (1952): The reactions of fish to water of low oxygen concentration. Journal of Experimental Biology, 29: 403-415. Go to original source...
    14. Jones J.R., Knowlton M.F. (1993): Limnology of Missouri reservoirs: an analysis of regional patterns. Lake and Reservoir Management, 8: 17-30. Go to original source...
    15. Knight S.S., Welch T.D. (2004): Evaluation of watershed management practices on oxbow lake ecology and water quality. In: Nett M.T., Locke M.A., Pennington D.A. (eds): Water Quality Assessments in the Mississippi Delta: Regional Solutions, National Scope. ACS Symposium Ser. 877, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 119-133. Go to original source...
    16. Locke M.A. (2004): Mississippi Delta management systems evaluation areas: Overview of water quality issues on a watershed scale. In: Nett M.T., Locke M.A., Pennington D.A. (eds): Water Quality Assessments in the Mississippi Delta: Regional Solutions, National Scope. ACS Symposium Ser. 877, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 1-15. Go to original source...
    17. McComas S. (2003): Lake and Pond Management Guidebook. CRC Press, Boca Raton. Go to original source...
    18. McDowell L.L., Willis G.H., Murphree C.E. (1988): Nitrogen and phosphorus yields in run-off from silty soils in the Mississippi Delta, USA. Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment, 25: 119-137. Go to original source...
    19. Meade R.H. (ed.) (1995): Contaminants in the Mississippi River, 1987-1992. U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1133. U.S. Geological Survey, Reston. Go to original source...
    20. Miranda L.E., Hargreaves J.A., Raborn S.W. (2001): Predicting and managing risk of unstable dissolved oxygen in a eutrophic lake. Hydrobiology, 457: 177-185. Go to original source...
    21. Mueller D.K., Hamilton P.A., Helsel D.R., Hitt K.J., Ruddy B.C. (1995): Nutrients in Ground Water and Surface Water of the United States - An Analysis of Data through 1992. [U.S. Geological Survey WaterResources Investigations Report 95-4031.] U.S. Geological Survey, Reston.
    22. Nett M.T., Locke M.A., Pennington D.A. (eds) (2004): Water Quality Assessments in the Mississippi Delta: Regional Solutions, National Scope. ACS Symposium Ser. 877, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC. Go to original source...
    23. Nielsen L.A., Johnson D.L. (eds) (1984): Fisheries Techniques. The American Fisheries Society, Bethesda.
    24. Pereira W.E., Hostettler F.D. (1993): Nonpoint source contamination of the Mississippi River and its tributaries by herbicides. Environmental Science and Technology, 27: 1542-1552. Go to original source...
    25. Rebich R.A. (2004): Suspended sediment and agrochemicals in runoff from agricultural systems in the Mississippi Delta - 1996-2000. In: Nett M.T., Locke M.A., Pennington D.A. (eds): Water Quality Assessments in the Mississippi Delta: Regional Solutions, National Scope. ACS Symposium Ser. 877, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 104-118.
    26. Rebich R.A., Knight S.S. (eds) (2001): The Mississippi Delta Management Systems Evaluation Area Project 1995-1999. MAFES Bulletin, Mississippi State University, Starkville. Go to original source...
    27. Richards J.G., Farrell A.P., Brauner C.J. (eds) (2009): Hypoxia. In: Fish Physiology. Volume 27. Elsevier, Inc., Saint Louis.
    28. SAS Institute (1999): SAS 8.2. SAS Institute, Inc. Cary, North Carolina.
    29. Swingle H.S. (1950): Relationships and Dynamics of Balanced and Unbalanced Fish Populations. Bulletin No. 274, Agricultural Experiment Station of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Auburn.
    30. Swingle H.S. (1956): Appraisal of methods of fish population study - Part IV: Determination of balance in farm fish ponds. In: Transactions of the 21st North American Wildlife Conf. March 5-6, Washington, DC.
    31. USEPA (1987): Quality Criteria for Water 1986. EPA 440/5-86-001. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC.
    32. Wedemeyer G.A., Meyer F.P., Smith L. (1976): Diseases of Fishes. Book 5: Environmental Stress and Fish Diseases. T.F.H. Publications, Inc., Neptune City.

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY NC 4.0), which permits non-comercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content