Skip to main content
Duke University Libraries
DukeSpace Scholarship by Duke Authors
  • Login
  • Ask
  • Menu
  • Login
  • Ask a Librarian
  • Search & Find
  • Using the Library
  • Research Support
  • Course Support
  • Libraries
  • About
View Item 
  •   DukeSpace
  • Duke Scholarly Works
  • Scholarly Articles
  • View Item
  •   DukeSpace
  • Duke Scholarly Works
  • Scholarly Articles
  • View Item
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

A multi-scale approach to prioritize wetland restoration for watershed-level water quality improvement

Thumbnail
View / Download
586.2 Kb
Date
2010-12-01
Authors
Flanagan, N
Richardson, CJ
Repository Usage Stats
107
views
216
downloads
Abstract
Wetland restoration is commonly presented as an important strategy for maintaining and enhancing the water quality and ecological capital of watershed-scale ecosystems. Prioritizing restoration sites on the landscape is often a haphazard process based on widely held, though often untested, assumptions about relationships between watershed characteristics and water quality. We present a framework to target and prioritize wetland restoration locations using both regional and watershed-level screening models. The regression-tree and random forest models presented in this paper identify watershed variables with the strongest relationships to a given water quality parameter, present a clear hierarchy of variable importance, and present approximate thresholds in watershed area where these variables express the greatest impact on water quality. The proportion of watersheds classified as prior-converted agricultural land was an important predictor of both ortho and total phosphorus. Fortunately because prior-converted agricultural lands were historically wetlands, they are often very suitable for wetland restoration. These sites often have poorly-drained soils requiring artificial drainage to be suitable for agriculture. These drainage systems become conduits for transporting phosphorus from agricultural field and to area streams and rivers. Maintaining natural land-cover within stream buffers is identified as another important predictor of water quality. This seems to be especially true with regard to NO 3 -NO 2 concentrations. Our model results support specific management recommendations including: (a) exclusion of agricultural land-uses from riparian buffers, (b) maintaining or increasing watershed-level wetland-cover and (c) reducing wetland fragmentation. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
Type
Journal article
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/15723
Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1007/s11273-010-9188-9
Publication Info
Flanagan, N; & Richardson, CJ (2010). A multi-scale approach to prioritize wetland restoration for watershed-level water quality improvement. Wetlands Ecology and Management, 18(6). pp. 695-706. 10.1007/s11273-010-9188-9. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/15723.
This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
Collections
  • Scholarly Articles
More Info
Show full item record

Scholars@Duke

Flanagan

Neal Flanagan

Visiting Assistant Professor
Richardson

Curtis J. Richardson

Research Professor of Resource Ecology in the Division of Environmental Science and Policy
Curtis J. Richardson is Professor of Resource Ecology and founding Director of the Duke University Wetland Center in the Nicholas School of the Environment. Dr. Richardson earned his degrees from the State University of New York and the University of Tennessee. His research interests in applied ecology focus on long-term ecosystem response to large-scale perturbations such as climate change, toxic materials, trace metals, flooding, or nutrient additions. He has specific interests in phosphor
Alphabetical list of authors with Scholars@Duke profiles.
Open Access

Articles written by Duke faculty are made available through the campus open access policy. For more information see: Duke Open Access Policy

Rights for Collection: Scholarly Articles


Works are deposited here by their authors, and represent their research and opinions, not that of Duke University. Some materials and descriptions may include offensive content. More info

Make Your Work Available Here

How to Deposit

Browse

All of DukeSpaceCommunities & CollectionsAuthorsTitlesTypesBy Issue DateDepartmentsAffiliations of Duke Author(s)SubjectsBy Submit DateThis CollectionAuthorsTitlesTypesBy Issue DateDepartmentsAffiliations of Duke Author(s)SubjectsBy Submit Date

My Account

LoginRegister

Statistics

View Usage Statistics
Duke University Libraries

Contact Us

411 Chapel Drive
Durham, NC 27708
(919) 660-5870
Perkins Library Service Desk

Digital Repositories at Duke

  • Report a problem with the repositories
  • About digital repositories at Duke
  • Accessibility Policy
  • Deaccession and DMCA Takedown Policy

TwitterFacebookYouTubeFlickrInstagramBlogs

Sign Up for Our Newsletter
  • Re-use & Attribution / Privacy
  • Harmful Language Statement
  • Support the Libraries
Duke University