Bison and cattle grazing management, bare ground coverage, and links to suspended sediment concentrations in grassland streams

Grudzinski, Bartosz; Daniels, Melinda D.; Anibas, Kyle; Spencer, David A.

doi:10.1111/1752-1688.12364

Cited by 39 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…Storm water samples were collected from each stream with USGS U‐59C single‐stage samplers (1 L) (e.g., Colby, ; Grudzinski, Daniels, Anibas, & Spencer, ; Vanoni, ). The U‐59C sampler allows for effective storm water sampling when stream velocities are <1.5 m/s.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land cover impacts on storm flow suspended solid and nutrient concentrations in southwest Ohio streams

Lazar

Spahr

Grudzinski

et al. 2019

Water Environment Research

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Impacts between urban and agricultural land cover on storm flow water quality are poorly understood for the Eastern Corn Belt Ecoregion in SW Ohio. Storm flow water samples were collected from May 2017 to October 2017 across seven SW Ohio watersheds which ranged in urban land cover from 6% to 92% and in agricultural land cover from 4% to 70%. Two watersheds contained water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs). Percent agricultural land cover in a watershed and storm magnitude were primary explanatory variables for total suspended solid and total phosphorus concentrations. Total nitrogen, nitrate, and phosphate concentrations were primarily explained by the presence of WRRFs and percent agricultural land cover. Increased dissolved nutrient concentrations in watersheds with WRRFs indicate that WRRFs in the study area are ineffectively removing nitrate and phosphate from effluent. Results suggest that to improve water quality during storm flows, additional management efforts need to be focused on agricultural watersheds and WRRFs. • Practitioner points• Storm flow water quality in the study area is significantly affected by land cover, WRRF Q, and storm Q. • TSS and TP concentrations are best explained by percent of agricultural land cover in a watershed and magnitude of storms. • TN, NO 3 -N, and PO 3 4 -P concentrations are best explained by WRRF Q, followed by the percent agricultural land cover. • This study shows that agricultural land cover and WRRFs play a significant role in water quality degradation in SW Ohio.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land cover impacts on storm flow suspended solid and nutrient concentrations in southwest Ohio streams

Lazar

Spahr

Grudzinski

et al. 2019

Water Environment Research

Self Cite

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“…Indirect effects of fences on plants are also common. For example, domestic and wild herbivores preferentially move and feed alongside fence lines, resulting in increased trampling, changed growth patterns, and altered seed dispersal (Evans 1997, Grudzinski et al 2016. Cumulatively, these behavioral changes in animals can alter recruitment and plant community composition.…”

Section: Figure 2 a Large-spatial-scale Analysis Of The Spatial Extementioning

confidence: 99%

Fence Ecology: Frameworks for Understanding the Ecological Effects of Fences

McInturff

Wilkinson

et al. 2020

BioScience

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Investigations of the links between human infrastructure and ecological change have provided eye-opening insights into humanity's environmental impacts and contributed to global environmental policies. Fences are globally ubiquitous, yet they are often omitted from discussions of anthropogenic impacts. In the present article, we address this gap through a systematic literature review on the ecological effects of fences. Our overview provides five major takeaways: 1) an operational definition of fencing to structure future research, 2) an estimate of fence densities in the western United States to emphasize the challenges of accounting for fences in human-footprint mapping, 3) a framework exhibiting the ecological winners and losers that fences produce, 4) a typology of fence effects across ecological scales to guide research, and 5) a summary of research trends and biases that suggest that fence effects have been underestimated. Through highlighting past research and offering frameworks for the future, we aim with this work to formalize the nascent field of fence ecology.

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“…After a more than 30-year absence of grazing KPBS, a cattle grazing study was initiated in 2010. Cow-calf pairs at a density of one pair per 3.2 ha graze four watersheds for a 5-month grazing season from early May to early October each year [64,65]. Twenty-one watersheds (with an area of 17.13 km 2 ) were selected for data analysis in this study given the coverage of the aerial images.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Fire and Large Herbivores on Canopy Nitrogen in a Tallgrass Prairie

et al. 2019

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This study analyzed the spatial heterogeneity of grassland canopy nitrogen in a tallgrass prairie with different treatments of fire and ungulate grazing (long-term bison grazing vs. recent cattle grazing). Variogram analysis was applied to continuous remotely sensed canopy nitrogen images to examine the spatial variability in grassland canopies. Heterogeneity metrics (e.g., the interspersion/juxtaposition index) were calculated from the categorical canopy nitrogen maps and compared among fire and grazing treatments. Results showed that watersheds burned within one year had higher canopy nitrogen content and lower interspersions of high-nitrogen content patches than watersheds with longer fire intervals, suggesting an immediate and transient fire effect on grassland vegetation. In watersheds burned within one year, high-intensity grazing reduced vegetation density, but promoted grassland heterogeneity, as indicated by lower canopy nitrogen concentrations and greater interspersions of high-nitrogen content patches at the grazed sites than at the ungrazed sites. Variogram analyses across watersheds with different grazing histories showed that long-term bison grazing created greater spatial variability of canopy nitrogen than recent grazing by cattle. This comparison between bison and cattle is novel, as few field experiments have evaluated the role of grazing history in driving grassland heterogeneity. Our analyses extend previous research of effects from pyric herbivory on grassland heterogeneity by highlighting the role of grazing history in modulating the spatial and temporal distribution of aboveground nitrogen content in tallgrass prairie vegetation using a remote sensing approach. The comparison of canopy nitrogen properties and the variogram analysis of canopy nitrogen distribution provided by our study are useful for further mapping grassland canopy features and modeling grassland dynamics involving interplays among fire, large grazers, and vegetation communities. pools available to herbivores [8]. Increased soil temperature in recently burned areas enhances nutrition cycling belowground, and potentially improves plant productivity [9,10].Fire effects on vegetation canopies vary with factors such as plant species, season of the ignition, and the time since the previous burn (fire intervals). Fire is effective for promoting the growth of herbaceous vegetation by suppressing woody plant invasion [11,12]. When prescribed fire coincides with spring plant growth, the effect of fire on the landscape is most evident [1]. Relative to non-growing season prescribed fire, spring fires often reduce the forb species that have initiated growth before the burn, and thus increase the dominance and production of the matrix grass species [13]. Moreover, spring fires tend to advance plant growth and speed up the vegetation phenological development [14]. The fire stimulus to grassland plants is dramatic but transitory. It is typically apparent for the first one or two years after the burn, and it then disappears as the communit...

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Bison and cattle grazing management, bare ground coverage, and links to suspended sediment concentrations in grassland streams

Cited by 39 publications

References 82 publications

Land cover impacts on storm flow suspended solid and nutrient concentrations in southwest Ohio streams

Land cover impacts on storm flow suspended solid and nutrient concentrations in southwest Ohio streams

Fence Ecology: Frameworks for Understanding the Ecological Effects of Fences

Effects of Fire and Large Herbivores on Canopy Nitrogen in a Tallgrass Prairie

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