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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » National Laboratory for Agriculture and The Environment » Agroecosystems Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #341105
Title: Long-term research and monitoring of conservation practice effects in Iowa watersheds

Author
item Moorman, Thomas
item Tomer, Mark
item Jaynes, Dan
item Kaspar, Thomas
item Parkin, Timothy
item Malone, Robert - Rob
item ISENHART, THOMAS - Iowa State University

Submitted to: Symposium Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/27/2017
Publication Date: 6/13/2017
Citation: Moorman, T.B., Tomer, M.D., Jaynes, D.B., Kaspar, T.C., Parkin, T.B., Malone, R.W., Isenhart, T.M. 2017. Long-term research and monitoring of conservation practice effects in Iowa watersheds. In: proceedings of UCOWR/NIWR Annual Conference, June 13-15, 2017, Fort Collins, Colorado. Available: http://ucowr.org/files/2017_Conference/proceedings/2017.pdf.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Impacts of conservation practices on water quality can be demonstrated at the plot and field scales in research or on-farm settings. Watershed-scale monitoring is often used to examine the cumulative effects of conservation practice implementation for that drainage area. The Upper Mississippi River Basin is dominated by corn and soybean production and the export of nitrate-N is an important contributing factor to development of hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. In response to this challenge the use of winter cover crops, denitrification bioreactors and wetlands have been demonstrated to be effective at the plot and field scale for nitrate removal. We present long-term water quality data for two different Iowa watersheds: the South Fork of the Iowa River (SFIR) and Walnut Creek (WC) in Jasper Co. The SFIR has intensive row crop and swine production while reconstructed prairie has been progressively added in WC. These settings will illustrate many of the issues in assessing effectiveness of conservation practices over time.