Assessing Riparian Conservation Land Management Practice Impacts on Gully Erosion in Iowa |
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Authors: | George N Zaimes Richard C Schultz |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Forestry and Natural Environment Management, Kavala Institute of Technology (KavTech), 1st km Drama-Mikrohoriou, Drama, 66100, Greece;(2) Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Iowa State University, 339 Science II, Ames, IA 50011, USA |
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Abstract: | Well-established perennial vegetation in riparian areas of agricultural lands can stabilize the end points of gullies and
reduce their overall erosion. The objective of this study was to investigate the impacts of riparian land management on gully
erosion. A field survey documented the number of gullies and cattle access points in riparian forest buffers, grass filters,
annual row-cropped fields, pastures in which the cattle were fenced out of the stream, and continuously, rotationally and
intensive rotationally grazed pastures in three regions of Iowa. Gully lengths, depths and severely eroding bank areas were
measured. Gullies exhibited few significant differences among riparian management practices. The most significant differences
were exhibited between conservation and agricultural management practices, an indication that conservation practices could
reduce gully erosion. Changes in pasture management from continuous to rotational or intensive rotational grazing showed no
reductions in gully erosion. It is important to recognize that more significant differences among riparian management practices
were not exhibited because the conservation and alternative grazing practices had recently been established. As gully formation
is more impacted by upland than riparian management, gully stabilization might require additional upland conservation practices.
The existence of numerous cattle access points in pastures where cattle have full access to the stream also indicates that
these could be substantial sources of sediment for streams. Finally, the gully banks were less important sediment contributors
to streams than the streambanks. The severely eroding bank areas in streams were six times greater than those in the gullies
in the monitored reaches. |
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