Treesearch

Effective water resources assessment and management requires quantitative information on the variability of ambient and biological conditions in aquatic communities. Although it is understood that natural systems are variable, robust estimates of variation in water quality and biotic endpoints (e.g. community-based structure and function metrics) are rare in US waters; due, in large part, to the need for, but paucity of, consistent, long-term studies.

It has long been recognized that conditions at a point on a stream are highly dependent on conditions upgradient within the topographic watershed. The hydrologic unit (HU) system has provided a useful set of nationally consistent, hydrologically based polygons that has allowed for the generalization and tabulation of various conditions within the stream and its valley.

This study explains the geographical importance of the Cooper and Wando River watersheds, located east of Charleston (SC), in relation to inland rice cultivation during the colonial and antebellum periods. By focusing on the geological formation of this watershed, this paper will explain the connection between this plantation enterprise and the natural environment. The central South Carolina coastal plain physiography consists of a series of soil deposits during the Pleistocene. This topography provided a foundation for which free and enslaved rice cultivators lived and worked. By examining...

Rice became the market export crop in the early eighteenth century that made South Carolina become an economic and agricultural powerhouse after many exotic tropical cultivars failed (Carney and Porcher 1993, Carney 1996, 2001, Littlefield 1981, Fields-Black 2008).

Understanding how regional-specific water resources respond to disturbances can serve as useful information to land managers as they aim to set flow targets needed to maintain ecological integrity in surface waters or to design riparian buffers for water quality protection. There are three distinct land provinces across North Carolina: the Mountains, Piedmont, and Coastal Plain. Population density, topography, and distribution of major forest landscapes are unique to each region, resulting in a range of different water resource needs and responses to land management practices.

The interaction between the physical and climatic attributes of a basin (form) control how water is partitioned, stored, and conveyed through a catchment (function). Hydrologic Landscapes (HLs) were previously developed across Oregon and are comprised of components describing climate, seasonality, aquifer permeability, terrain, and soil permeability for over 5,000 assessment units; they therefore represent hydrologic form throughout Oregon.

Georgia Adopt-A-Stream partners annually with many organizations, universities and watershed groups to conduct sampling events with volunteers at a watershed level. These monitoring events range from one-day snapshots to week-long paddle trips. One-day sampling events, also called “Blitzs,” River Adventures and River Rendezvous, generally target 20-50 sites within a watershed.

Land use and land cover play a significant role as drivers of environmental change. Information on what is changing and where those changes are occurring is essential if we are to improve our understanding of past management practices or policies and effectively respond now and in the future.

Riparian buffers are dynamic, transitional ecosystems between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems with well-defined vegetation and soil characteristics. Previous approaches to riparian buffer delineation have primarily utilized fixed-width buffers. However, these methodologies only take the watercourse into consideration and ignore critical geomorphology, associated vegetation and soil characteristics.

The lag time between groundwater recharge and discharge in a watershed and the potential groundwater load to streams is an important factor in forecasting responses to future land use practices. We call this concept managing the “space-time-load continuum.” It’s understood that in any given watershed, the response function (the load at any given time) will differ for surface runoff and groundwater discharge. The mean age of surface runoff may be days whereas for groundwater it could be many decades. Surface runoff reflects contemporaneous land use practices and relatively quick reactions...