HR: 1330h
AN: H43C-07    [Abstracts]
TI: Monitoring Non-point Source Pollution using the Reference Condition Approach: A Case-study from the Minnesota River Basin
AU: * Were, V L
EM: were0005@umn.edu
AF: University of Minnesota, Water Resources Science Program, 173 McNeal Hall, 1985 Buford Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108 United States
AU: Perry, J A
EM: jperry@umn.edu
AF: University of Minnesota, Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, 200 Hodson Hall, 1980 Folwell Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108 United States
AB: Non-point source (NPS) pollution, primarily by nutrients, sediment, and bacteria, is of concern throughout the U.S.A. Agriculture has been identified as a major component of NPS loading to the nation's waterways and several conservation programs have been incorporated into natural resources management to help curb the effects of NPS pollution from agricultural practices. Effective implementation of such programs requires monitoring strategies that foster better understanding of how water quality is affected by land use change. Those monitoring programs require precise definition of `reference condition', a term that must be locally calibrated and have regional inferential capability. That need for simultaneous local and regional utility poses a challenge. We developed a tool using the `reference stream' approach for determining least-impacted stream links in landscapes dominated by agriculture. We applied our method to watersheds in the Minnesota River Basin where a significant proportion of the land is devoted to agricultural practices. The result is a tested design metric that facilitates selection of reference conditions for judging the effectiveness of conservation programs.
DE: 1803 Anthropogenic effects
DE: 9350 North America
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly