scholarly journals Comparative analysis of hydrologic signatures in two agricultural watersheds in east-central Illinois: legacies of the past to inform the future

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 6515-6558 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Yaeger ◽  
M. Sivapalan ◽  
G. F. McIsaac ◽  
X. Cai

Abstract. Historically, the central Midwestern US has undergone drastic anthropogenic land use change, having been transformed, in part through federal government policy, from a natural grassland system to an artificially-drained agricultural system devoted to row cropping corn and soybeans. Current federal policies are again influencing land use change in this region with increased corn acreage and new biomass crops proposed as part of an energy initiative emphasizing biofuels. To better address these present and future challenges it is helpful to understand how the legacies of past changes have shaped the current response of the system. To this end, a comparative analysis of the hydrologic signatures in both spatial and time series data from two central Illinois watersheds was undertaken. The past history of these catchments is reflected in their current hydrologic responses, which are highly heterogeneous, more so in the extensively tile-drained Sangamon watershed. The differences in geologic history, artificial drainage patterns, and to some extent, reservoir construction, manifest at all time scales, from annual to daily, and spatially within the watersheds. These differences can also be seen in the summer low flow patterns, where the more tile-drained watershed shows more variability than does the more naturally drained one. Of interest is the scaling behavior of the low flows; generally as drainage area increases, small-scale heterogeneity decreases. This is not seen in the more tile-drained watershed, thus adding complexity to the problem of predicting the catchment response to future changes.

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (11) ◽  
pp. 4607-4623 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Yaeger ◽  
M. Sivapalan ◽  
G. F. McIsaac ◽  
X. Cai

Abstract. Historically, the central Midwestern US has undergone drastic anthropogenic land use change, having been transformed, in part through government policy, from a natural grassland system to an artificially drained agricultural system devoted to row cropping corn and soybeans. Current federal policies are again influencing land use in this region with increased corn acreage and new biomass crops proposed as part of an energy initiative emphasizing biofuels. To better address these present and future challenges it is helpful to understand whether and how the legacies of past changes have shaped the current response of the system. To this end, a comparative analysis of the hydrologic signatures in both spatial and time series data from two central Illinois watersheds was undertaken. The past history of these catchments is reflected in their current hydrologic responses, which are highly heterogeneous due to differences in geologic history, artificial drainage patterns, and reservoir operation, and manifest temporally, from annual to daily timescales, and spatially, both within and between the watersheds. These differences are also apparent from analysis of the summer low flows, where the more tile-drained watershed shows greater variability overall than does the more naturally drained one. In addition, precipitation in this region is also spatially heterogeneous even at small scales, and this, interacting with and filtering through the historical modifications to the system, increases the complexity of the problem of predicting the catchment response to future changes.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 189-197
Author(s):  
Christiane Cavalcante Leite ◽  
Marcos Heil Costa ◽  
Ranieri Carlos Ferreira de Amorim

The evaluation of the impacts of land-use change on the water resources has been, many times, limited by the knowledge of past land use conditions. Most publications on this field present only a vague description of the past land use, which is usually insufficient for more comprehensive studies. This study presents the first reconstruction of the historical land use patterns in Amazonia, that includes both croplands and pasturelands, for the period 1940-1995. During this period, Amazonia experienced the fastest rates of land use change in the world, growing 4-fold from 193,269 km2 in 1940 to 724,899 km2 in 1995. This reconstruction is based on a merging of satellite imagery and census data, and provides a 5'x5' yearly dataset of land use in three different categories (cropland, natural pastureland and planted pastureland) for Amazonia. This dataset will be an important step towards understanding the impacts of changes in land use on the water resources in Amazonia.


2020 ◽  
Vol 249 ◽  
pp. 108731
Author(s):  
Evan C. Wilson ◽  
Benjamin Zuckerberg ◽  
M. Zachariah Peery ◽  
Jonathan N. Pauli

1979 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce E. Lindsay ◽  
Daniel L. Dunn

As a result of accelerated growth during the past decade, land use change over time and its accompanying problems represents a policy area germane to New Hampshire. Accurate projections of the future pattern of land use would be helpful to decision makers responsible for land use policy. Such projections could assist policy makers either directly in formulating land use plans or indirectly in justifying the need (or lack of need) for overt land use planning. Future projections, based upon various alternative land use policy scenarios, will increase the quantitative supply of information to decision makers in a two-fold manner. First, such estimates provide an insight into the current trend in land use mix and, secondly, give an overview of what impacts various policies directly have upon land use change.


GeoJournal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 555-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murilo Rodrigues de Arruda ◽  
Maja Slingerland ◽  
José Zilton Lopes Santos ◽  
Ken E. Giller

Author(s):  
R.J. Copland ◽  
D.R. Stevens

Southern New Zealand has seen major changes in land use in the past 20 years with the rise in dairy cows in milk from 149 000 in 1994 to 682 000 in 2010, while breeding ewe numbers have declined from 11.2 million to 7.3 million over the same period. The development of milking platforms with a significant need for winter dairy grazing has opened up many opportunities for sheep, beef and deer farmers in the region. The need to remain profitable, displacement of sheep to more marginal land, and social influences such as retaining family ownership have encouraged farmers to make the most of potential land-use change opportunities. Three case studies outline the changes made and potential profitability increases in dairy conversion, flexible sheep and beef operations and improved deer production, with cash surplus after expenses being more than doubled in each case. Keywords: land use, profit, dairy, sheep, beef, deer.


Oryx ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Héctor González-Ancín ◽  
Manuel Spínola ◽  
José M. Mora-Benavides ◽  
Joel C. Sáenz ◽  
Alberto Paillacar ◽  
...  

Abstract Land-use change is a major driver of biodiversity loss. Large-scale disturbances such as habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation are known to have negative consequences for native biota, but the effects of small-scale disturbances such as selective logging are less well known. We compared three sites with different regimes of selective logging performed by Indigenous communities in the South American temperate rainforest, to assess effects on the density and habitat selection patterns of the Near Threatened endemic arboreal marsupial Dromiciops gliroides. We used structured interviews to identify patterns of wood extraction, which was 0.22–2.55 m3 per ha per year. In the less disturbed site only two tree species were logged, in the intermediately disturbed sites eight species were logged at low intensity, and in the most disturbed site seven species were logged intensively. The site with intermediate disturbance had the highest fleshy-fruited plant diversity and fruit biomass values as a result of the proliferation of shade-intolerant plants. This site also had the highest density of D. gliroides. These findings are consistent with Connell's intermediate disturbance hypothesis, suggesting that coexistence of people with nature is possible if wood extraction volumes are moderate, increasing plant diversity. Indigenous communities have sustainably used natural resources for centuries, but current rates of land-use change are becoming a significant threat to both them and their natural resources.


2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 507-539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Q. Zhang ◽  
A. J. Pitman ◽  
Y. P. Wang ◽  
Y. Dai ◽  
P. J. Lawrence

Abstract. We examine the impact of land use and land cover change (LULCC) over the period from 1850 to 2005 using an Earth System Model that incorporates nitrogen and phosphorous limitation on the terrestrial carbon cycle. We compare the estimated CO2 emissions and warming from land use change in a carbon only version of the model with those from simulations including nitrogen and phosphorous limitation. If we omit nutrients, our results suggest LULCC cools on the global average by about 0.1 °C. Including nutrients reduces this cooling to ~ 0.05 °C. Our results also suggest LULCC has a major impact on total land carbon over the period 1850–2005. In carbon only simulations, the inclusion of LULCC decreases the total additional land carbon stored in 2005 from around 210 Pg C to 85 Pg C. Including nitrogen and phosphorous limitation also decreases the scale of the terrestrial carbon sink to 80 Pg C. In particular, adding LULCC on top of the nutrient limited simulations changes the sign of the terrestrial carbon flux from a sink to a source (12 Pg C). The CO2 emission from LULCC from 1850 to 2005 is estimated to be 130 Pg C for carbon only simulation, or 97 Pg C if nutrient limitation is accounted for in our model. The difference between these two estimates of CO2 emissions from LULCC largely results from the weaker response of photosynthesis to increased CO2 and smaller carbon pool sizes, and therefore lower carbon loss from plant and wood product carbon pools under nutrient limitation. We suggest that nutrient limitation should be accounted in simulating the effects of LULCC on the past climate and on the past and future carbon budget.


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