Cargando…

Managing Artificially Drained Low-Gradient Agricultural Headwaters for Enhanced Ecosystem Functions

Large tracts of lowlands have been drained to expand extensive agriculture into areas that were historically categorized as wasteland. This expansion in agriculture necessarily coincided with changes in ecosystem structure, biodiversity, and nutrient cycling. These changes have impacted not only the...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Pierce, Samuel C., Kröger, Robert, Pezeshki, Reza
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4009802/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24832519
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biology1030794
_version_ 1782479807962939392
author Pierce, Samuel C.
Kröger, Robert
Pezeshki, Reza
author_facet Pierce, Samuel C.
Kröger, Robert
Pezeshki, Reza
author_sort Pierce, Samuel C.
collection PubMed
description Large tracts of lowlands have been drained to expand extensive agriculture into areas that were historically categorized as wasteland. This expansion in agriculture necessarily coincided with changes in ecosystem structure, biodiversity, and nutrient cycling. These changes have impacted not only the landscapes in which they occurred, but also larger water bodies receiving runoff from drained land. New approaches must append current efforts toward land conservation and restoration, as the continuing impacts to receiving waters is an issue of major environmental concern. One of these approaches is agricultural drainage management. This article reviews how this approach differs from traditional conservation efforts, the specific practices of drainage management and the current state of knowledge on the ecology of drainage ditches. A bottom-up approach is utilized, examining the effects of stochastic hydrology and anthropogenic disturbance on primary production and diversity of primary producers, with special regard given to how management can affect establishment of macrophytes and how macrophytes in agricultural landscapes alter their environment in ways that can serve to mitigate non-point source pollution and promote biodiversity in receiving waters.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4009802
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2012
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-40098022014-05-07 Managing Artificially Drained Low-Gradient Agricultural Headwaters for Enhanced Ecosystem Functions Pierce, Samuel C. Kröger, Robert Pezeshki, Reza Biology (Basel) Review Large tracts of lowlands have been drained to expand extensive agriculture into areas that were historically categorized as wasteland. This expansion in agriculture necessarily coincided with changes in ecosystem structure, biodiversity, and nutrient cycling. These changes have impacted not only the landscapes in which they occurred, but also larger water bodies receiving runoff from drained land. New approaches must append current efforts toward land conservation and restoration, as the continuing impacts to receiving waters is an issue of major environmental concern. One of these approaches is agricultural drainage management. This article reviews how this approach differs from traditional conservation efforts, the specific practices of drainage management and the current state of knowledge on the ecology of drainage ditches. A bottom-up approach is utilized, examining the effects of stochastic hydrology and anthropogenic disturbance on primary production and diversity of primary producers, with special regard given to how management can affect establishment of macrophytes and how macrophytes in agricultural landscapes alter their environment in ways that can serve to mitigate non-point source pollution and promote biodiversity in receiving waters. MDPI 2012-12-10 /pmc/articles/PMC4009802/ /pubmed/24832519 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biology1030794 Text en © 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Pierce, Samuel C.
Kröger, Robert
Pezeshki, Reza
Managing Artificially Drained Low-Gradient Agricultural Headwaters for Enhanced Ecosystem Functions
title Managing Artificially Drained Low-Gradient Agricultural Headwaters for Enhanced Ecosystem Functions
title_full Managing Artificially Drained Low-Gradient Agricultural Headwaters for Enhanced Ecosystem Functions
title_fullStr Managing Artificially Drained Low-Gradient Agricultural Headwaters for Enhanced Ecosystem Functions
title_full_unstemmed Managing Artificially Drained Low-Gradient Agricultural Headwaters for Enhanced Ecosystem Functions
title_short Managing Artificially Drained Low-Gradient Agricultural Headwaters for Enhanced Ecosystem Functions
title_sort managing artificially drained low-gradient agricultural headwaters for enhanced ecosystem functions
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4009802/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24832519
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biology1030794
work_keys_str_mv AT piercesamuelc managingartificiallydrainedlowgradientagriculturalheadwatersforenhancedecosystemfunctions
AT krogerrobert managingartificiallydrainedlowgradientagriculturalheadwatersforenhancedecosystemfunctions
AT pezeshkireza managingartificiallydrainedlowgradientagriculturalheadwatersforenhancedecosystemfunctions