Riparian Land-Use, Stream Morphology and Streambank Erosion within Grazed Pastures in Southern Iowa, USA: A Catchment-Wide Perspective

Mustafa Tufekcioglu, Richard C. Schultz, Thomas M. Isenhart, John L. Kovar and James R. Russell
Additional contact information
Mustafa Tufekcioglu: Faculty of Forestry, Artvin Coruh University, Seyitler Campus, Artvin 08000, Turkey
Richard C. Schultz: Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Iowa State University, 339 Science Hall II, Ames, IA 50011, USA
Thomas M. Isenhart: Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Iowa State University, 339 Science Hall II, Ames, IA 50011, USA
John L. Kovar: USDA-ARS National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment, Ames, IA 50011, USA
James R. Russell: Department of Animal Science, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 16, 1-13

Abstract: Factors influencing streambank erosion at the field/reach scale include both watershed and riparian land-uses, stream hydrology and channel morphology at the catchment scale. This study assesses the relationship of riparian land-uses, stream morphologic characteristics and catchment scale variables to streambank erosion within grazed riparian pastures in the Southern Iowa Drift Plain. Thirteen cooperating beef cow–calf farms and their catchments ranging from 2.5 to 12.9 km 2 in the Rathbun Lake watershed in South Central Iowa (USA) were chosen to conduct this study. Results suggest that the integration of stream morphologic characteristics and riparian land-uses at both the reach and catchment scale are necessary to explain the current level of streambank erosion measured at the reach scale. Larger catchment size or catchments with more total channel length were found to experience more bank erosion at the reach scale. A significant positive relationship between percent sand-and-silt in the bank soil and bank erosion rates implies that bank soils with less cohesiveness are more erodible. Catchment-scale assessments of the thirteen watersheds showed that within the 50 m corridor on both sides of the stream, 46 to 61% of riparian area was devoted to agricultural use and only 6 to 11% was in ungrazed perennial vegetation, much of it enrolled in the USDA Conservation Reserve Program. Overall, this and previous Rathbun watershed studies have shown that intensive agricultural use of riparian areas over such extents of time and scale could be directly (in field scale) and/or indirectly (watershed scale) related to excessive amounts of streambank erosion (ranging from 8.6 to 38.3 cm/yr) to receiving streams and lakes leading to their impairment and reduction in ecological services. Exclusion of cattle grazing in the riparian areas along buffered stream lengths (2.1% of the total watershed area) of the Rathbun watershed would reduce this impact. This approach could also be applicable to other similar watersheds with extensive land-use under grazed management.

Keywords: streambank erosion; riparian land use; stream morphology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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