United States Department of Conservation Effects Assessment Project Natural Resources Conservation Service Helping People Help the Land Quantifying the Ecosystem Services CEAP-Wetlands Derived from Wetland Conservation Backgrounder Practice in the Glaciated Interior : November 2008 The Provision of Water Quality Benefits CEAP — Building the Science Base The combination of extensive drainage with sediment trapping. The researchers for Conservation and intensive row crop fertilization in will also employ geographic information Science-based conservation is the key to the Glaciated Interior Plains (GIP) con- systems— managing agricultural landscapes for envi- tributes some of the highest nitrogen ronmental quality. yields per acre to downstream waters, • to determine whether wetland prac- particularly the . Agri- tices and land treatments imple- The Conservation Effects Assessment cultural sources, including fertilizer and Project (CEAP) is a multi-agency effort to mented on lands enrolled in the U.S. leguminous crops, are responsible for an quantify the environmental benefits of Department of Agriculture Wet- conservation practices and develop the estimated 58 percent of the nitrogen (N) lands Reserve Program (WRP) and science base for managing the agricultural export in the Mississippi River basin. Conservation Reserve Program landscape for environmental quality. Pro- The environmental consequences of high (CRP) are being sited in the most at- ject findings will guide USDA conserva- levels of N export are well documented; risk (high nutrient yielding) water- tion policy and program development and for example, N export has led to the for- sheds, and help farmers and ranchers make informed mation of the seasonal hypoxic zone in • to develop tools to optimize the conservation choices. the . types (i.e. riparian buffers, wetland creation, restoration and enhance- The three principal components of Wetland creation, restoration, and en- ment) and placement of these wet- CEAP—the national assessment, the wa- hancement and establishment of riparian lands within the GIP. tershed assessment studies, and the bibli- buffers are widely used to intercept nu- ographies and literature reviews— trients, sediment, and other pollutants Results from this work will be used to contribute to the building and evolution of and maintain water quality of recipient identify— the science base for conservation. aquatic ecosystems. Since 2000, more Wetlands than 100,000 hectares of these wetland • which practices are most effective practices have been established under The goal of CEAP-Wetlands is to develop for removing N, P, and sediment, Farm Bill conservation programs. There • whether WRP and CRP wetland a broad collaborative foundation that fa- is, however, little documentation of the cilitates the production and delivery of practices are being sited in the extent to which these practices are in- most appropriate (i.e., high nutrient scientific data, results, and information. creasing the provision of ecosystem ser- yielding) watersheds, and Findings will routinely inform conserva- vices in agricultural landscapes. • which combination of WRP and tion decisions affecting wetland ecosys- CRP wetland practices and place- tems and the services they provide, par- Research Proposal ment within the watershed maxi- ticularly focusing on the effects and effec- The proposed research on the effects of mizes N, P, and sediment removal tiveness of USDA conservation practices wetlands conservation on ecosystem and minimizes export to aquatic and Farm Bill conservation programs on services in the GIP will address this un- ecosystem downstream. ecosystem services provided by wetlands certainty through a survey of up to 60 in agricultural landscapes. sites representing the four predominant Findings from this project will be appli- riparian and wetland conservation prac- cable to other watersheds in the eastern CEAP-Wetlands Coordinator: tices and their associated land treat- and central where large Diane Eckles ments. The survey will document N re- numbers of WRP and CRP wetland [email protected] moval via denitrification as well as N practices have been established to main- (301) 504-2312 and phosphorus (P) storage associated tain and protect water quality.

CEAP Website: www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/NRI/ceap

Study Investigators: Siobhan Fennessy, Biology Department, Kenyon College; Christopher Craft, SPEA, Indiana University

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