The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted a comprehensive, stratified survey of 204 wetland catchments in 1997 and 270 catchments in 2004, a subset of more than 2 million hectares of wetland and grassland systems established on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) lands. The purpose of the survey was to gather data for estimating a variety of ecosystem services provided by prairie pothole wetland catchments. In early 2008, USGS published a preliminary findings report as a result of these studies

Gleason, Robert A

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University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center US Geological Survey 2008 Prairie Pothole Regional Studies Robert A. Gleason USGS Northern Prairie Research Center, rgleason@usgs.gov Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usgsnpwrc  Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Gleason, Robert A., "Prairie Pothole Regional Studies" (2008). USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center. 184. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usgsnpwrc/184 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the US Geological Survey at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln.       Conservation Effects Assessment Project  Prairie Pothole Regional Studies CEAP — Building the Science Base for Conservation Science-based conservation is the key to managing agricultural landscapes for environmental quality. The Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) is a multi-agency effort to quantify the environmental benefits of conservation practices and develop the science base for managing the agricul-tural landscape for environmental qual-ity. Project findings will guide USDA conservation policy and program devel-opment and help farmers and ranchers make informed conservation choices. The three principal components of CEAP—the national assessment, the watershed assessment studies, and the bibliographies and literature reviews—contribute to the building and evolution of the science base for conservation.  Wetlands The goal of CEAP-Wetlands is to develop a broad collaborative foundation that fa-cilitates the production and delivery of scientific data, results, and information. Findings will routinely inform conserva-tion decisions affecting wetland ecosys-tems and the services they provide, par-ticularly focusing on the effects and effec-tiveness of USDA conservation practices and Farm Bill conservation programs on ecosystem services provided by wetlands in agricultural  CEAP-Wetlands Coordinator: Diane Eckles diane.eckles@wdc.usda.gov  (301) 504-2312  CEAP Website: www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/NRI/ceap  November 2008 United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service  Helping People Help the Land Ecosystem Services Derived From Wetland Conservation Practices in The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)conducted a comprehensive, stratified survey of 204 wetland catchments in 1997 and 270 catchments in 2004, a sub-set of more than 2 million hectares of wetland and grassland systems estab-lished on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) lands. The purpose of the survey was to gather data for estimating a vari-ety of ecosystem services provided by prairie pothole wetland catchments. In early 2008, USGS published a prelimi-nary findings report as a result of these studies. The report is available at http://www.usgs.gov/pp/1745/.   Principal findings:  • Restoration practices improved the quality and species richness of the native plant community, but not to the point of full site potential. • Catchments with a history of culti-vation had less soil organic carbon in the upper soil profile than did native prairie catchments. • Wetlands on program lands have significant potential to intercept and store precipitation that otherwise might contribute to downstream flooding; conservatively estimated, wetland catchments on program lands could capture and store an average of 1.1 acre-feet of water per acre of wetland. • Conversion of cultivated cropland to herbaceous perennial cover through CRP and WRP enrollments reduced total soil loss from uplands by an average of almost 2 million tons per year, resulting in the delivery of less sediment and associated nutrients to sensitive offsite ecosystems such as lakes, streams, and rivers. • Restored catchments provide at least some necessary resources for a di-versity of bird species that cropland catchments do not; CRP and WRP enrollments led to increases in the number of grassland areas that ex-ceeded published nesting area re-quirements for the five area-sensitive grassland bird species evaluated in the study.  Characterization of Prairie Pothole Catchment Soils: Implications for Delivery of Ecosystem Service Soils data collected from 270 wetland catchments in the Prairie Pothole Region are being analyzed to evaluate changes in physical and chemical properties of soils from the shoulder landscape posi-tion down through the wetland center along a representative slope. Changes in soil properties along the toposequence will be compared among restored, agri-cultural (cropped), and native (untilled) wetland catchments. The overall goal of this analysis is to relate changes in soil characteristics to wetland processes and delivery of ecosystems services.  Phosphorous Speciation as an Indicator of Land Use and  Conservation Practices on  Wetland Condition Most assessments of restored systems have focused on ecosystem structure (e.g., soil condition, water quality, flora, and fauna) rather than function (e.g., nutrient cycling). Consequently, func-tional restoration is often implied from ecosystem structure, and the link be-tween ecosystem structure and function is rarely tested. This study proposes to valuate the applicability of phosphorus (P) transformation as a time-integrated index of ecosystem function in restored prairie wetlands.   Land use affects vegetation cover, pri-mary production, nutrient cycling, and microbial processes, all of which influ-ence dynamics of soil P. Developments CEAP-Wetlands  Backgrounder   in 31P Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometry has provided new opportunities to “visualize” the diverse chemical forms of soil P (Newman and Tate 1980, Cade-Menun 2005) that can be linked to soil processes. NMR has been used to investigate phosphorus forms in forests, temperate pastures, steppes, marine and lacustrine sedi-ments, estuaries, and oceans as well as managed agro-ecosystems (Clark et al. 1998, Cade-Menun et al. 2000, Carman et al. 2000, Mahieu et al. 2000, Amelung et al. 2001, Sundareshwar et al. 2001, Turner et al. 2003, Cade-Menun 2005). NMR has also advanced our understand-ing of mechanistic processes including fractionation of P by soil mineralogy and texture, as well as the relation of soil P speciation to soil microbial activity and diversity (Cade-Menun 2005).  The rationale for the application of P-speciation to restored prairie wetlands stems from previous work relating land use change and P-dynamics in the Caro-lina Bays. Diversity in chemical speci-ation of soil P (e.g., inorganic ortho-phosphate, phosphomonoesters, phos-phodiesters, and pyrophosphate) was compared along a gradient of cultivated, restored, and undisturbed reference for-ested-wetlands on the North Carolina Coastal Plain. Conversion of natural wetlands to agricultural production re-sulted in the loss of natural diversity in the chemical forms of P—analogous to the loss of biodiversity in impacted eco-systems. Restoration of croplands to forested wetlands resulted in re-establishment of the diversity in chemi-cal speciation of nutrients.   Importantly, chemical diversity in P forms increased with age of restoration, eventually approximating the profiles from native forested wetlands. The time-line in restoration of the chemical spe-cies of P is remarkably similar to other indices, such as the soil perturbation index (Maul et al. 1999) used to evaluate the progressive development of ecosys-tem biogeochemical function. These preliminary data suggest that restoration to reference conditions of wetlands pre-viously under agriculture will likely re-quire more than 10 years. Although other factors must be considered, these data do suggest P-speciation as a valid tool to track the progress of wetland restoration efforts. Since chemical speci-ation of P is a function of biogeochemi-cal processes, re-establishment of chemical forms of P that mirror forms observed in reference ecosystems strongly suggests a restoration of bio-geochemical function.   These studies clearly show that P-speciation can be used to link ecosystem structure and function, and to track bio-geochemical function of restored ecosys-tems.  As part of this study, researchers will conduct studies to address the fol-lowing objectives to gain a better under-standing of P dynamics as an assessment tool of restored prairie wetlands:  • Examine spatial variation in P-diversity along a toposequence within wetland catchments. • Evaluate how P-diversity in wetland catchments varies with hydrologic function. • Examine the relationship between soil P-diversity and aboveground plant diversity. • Evaluate P-diversity in restored, cropland, and native wetlands in North Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa.  Determination of Wetland-Groundwater Relations Using Soil Characteristics During 2004, researchers from USGS conducted surveys of 270 sites across the Prairie Pothole Region to evaluate ecosystem services provided by wetland catchments restored through U.S. De-partment of Agriculture (USDA) conser-vation programs. Analyses suggested that variation in factors such as climate, hydrology, and soil often obscured the anticipated effects of current and histori-cal land-use practices on ecosystem ser-vices such as carbon sequestration.   The goal of this study is to reduce some of the variation in the 2004 data by re-classifying sites based on their long-term hydrology (i.e., groundwater discharge/recharge). The research intends to ac-complish this by using ordination tech-niques to identify sites that are similar to each based on soil characteristics that indicate ground water connection (e.g., specific conductance, inorganic carbon, effervescence, presence of carbonate horizons, etc.).   If this data-driven reclassification of sites proves to be viable, it would allow for reanalysis of ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, that were likely affected by comparing sites that differed with respect to hydrology. Ad-ditionally, this reclassification would allow us to explore relations among wet-land hydrology and remotely sensed data such as the National Wetlands Inventory and Soil Survey Geographic database. If relations between wetland hydrology and remotely sensed data are identified, this could facilitate accurate, large-scale spatial estimations of ecosystem services provided by USDA programs.  References Amelung, W., A. Rodionov, I.S. Urusevskaja, L. Haumaier, and W. Zech. 2001. Forms of organic phos-phorus in zonal steppe soils of Rus-sia assessed by 31P NMR. Geoderma 103:335-350. Cade-Menun, B.J. 2005. Characterizing phosphorus in environmental and agricultural samples by 31P nuclear resonance spectroscopy. Talanta 66:359-371. Cade-Menun, B.J., S.M. Berch, C.M. Preston, and L.M. Lavkulich. 2000. Phosphorus forms and related soil chemistry of Podzolic soils on northern Vancouver Island. I. A comparison of two forest types. Canadian Journal of Forest Re-search 30:1714-1725. Carman, R., G. Edlund, and C. Dam-berg. 2000. Distribution of organic and inorganic phosphorus com-pounds in marine and lacustrine sediments: A 31P NMR study. Chemical Geology 163:101-114. Clark, L.L., Ingall, E.D., and R. Benner. 1998. Marine phosphorus is selec-tively remineralized. Nature 393:426. Mahieu, N., D.C. Olk, and E.W. Ran-dall. 2000. Analysis of phosphorus in two humic acid fractions of inten-sively cropped lowland rice soils by 31P-NMR. European Journal of Soil Science 51:391-402. Maul, R.S., M.M. Holland, A.T. Mikell, and C.M. Cooper. 1999. Resilience of forested wetlands located in the southeastern United States: Demon-stration of a soil perturbation index. Wetlands 19:288-297.   The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, na-tional origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, ge-netic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or a part of an individual’s income is derived from any public assistance pro-gram. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination write to USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call (800) 795-3272 (voice) or (202) 720-6382 (TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity employer. Newman, R.H., and K.R. Tate.  1980.  Soil phosphorus characterization by 31P-nuclear magnetic resonance. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis 11:835-842. Sundareshwar, P.V., J.T. Morris, P.J. Pellechia, H.J. Cohen, D.E. Porter, and B.C. Jones. 2001. Occurrence and ecological significance of pyro-phosphate in estuaries. Limnology and Oceanography 46:1570-1577. Turner, B.L., N. Mahieu, L.N. Condron.  2003.  The phosphorus composition of temperate pasture soils deter-mined by NaOH–EDTA extraction and solution 31P NMR spectroscopy. Organic Geochemistry 34:1199-1210. Study Investigator: Robert A. Gleason, Research Wildlife Biologist, USGS Northern Prairie  Research Center, Jamestown, ND 

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