Riverine Threat Indices to Assess Watershed Condition and Identify Primary Management Capacity of Agriculture Natural Resource Management Agencies

• Published in: Environmental management (New York) 2014-03, Vol.53 (3), p.567-582
• Main Authors: Fore, Jeffrey D, Sowa, Scott P, Galat, David L, Annis, Gust M, Diamond, David D, Rewa, Charles
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural conservation; Agricultural management; Agricultural resources; Agricultural watersheds; Agriculture; Agriculture - legislation & jurisprudence; Agriculture - statistics & numerical data; Alliances; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Conservation; Conservation of Natural Resources - legislation & jurisprudence; Conservation of Natural Resources - methods; Conservation practices; Creeks & streams; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecology; ecoregions; Ecosystem; Environment; Environmental Management; Forestry Management; Geography; Government Agencies - organization & administration; infrastructure; lotic systems; Management; managers; Natural resource management; Natural resources; Natural Resources Conservation Service; Nature Conservation; pollution; Pollution index; Resource conservation; Resource management; Risk Assessment - legislation & jurisprudence; Risk Assessment - methods; River basins; Rivers - chemistry; Segments; Streams; Threat assessment; United States; United States Department of Agriculture; Urban agriculture; Urban areas; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Watersheds
• ISSN: 0364-152X; 1432-1009
• DOI: 10.1007/s00267-013-0222-6

Managers can improve conservation of lotic systems over large geographies if they have tools to assess total watershed conditions for individual stream segments and can identify segments where conservation practices are most likely to be successful (i.e., primary management capacity). The goal of this research was to develop a suite of threat indices to help agriculture resource management agencies select and prioritize watersheds across Missouri River basin in which to implement agriculture conservation practices. We quantified watershed percentages or densities of 17 threat metrics that represent major sources of ecological stress to stream communities into five threat indices: agriculture, urban, point-source pollution, infrastructure, and all non-agriculture threats. We identified stream segments where agriculture management agencies had primary management capacity. Agriculture watershed condition differed by ecoregion and considerable local variation was observed among stream segments in ecoregions of high agriculture threats. Stream segments with high non-agriculture threats were most concentrated near urban areas, but showed high local variability. 60 % of stream segments in the basin were classified as under U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) primary management capacity and most segments were in regions of high agricultural threats. NRCS primary management capacity was locally variable which highlights the importance of assessing total watershed condition for multiple threats. Our threat indices can be used by agriculture resource management agencies to prioritize conservation actions and investments based on: (a) relative severity of all threats, (b) relative severity of agricultural threats, and (c) and degree of primary management capacity.