• Restoration and Establishment of Riparian Buffers

 

• Go Directly to Riparian Buffer Website

• Overview: Methodology to establish, restore, and evaluate riparian vegetative buffers is being evaluated in field scale studies.

 
• Goal: Quantify relationships between hydrology, water chemistry, and water quality in restored riparian vegetative buffers and evaluate the potential for managing hydrology, water chemistry, and water quality functions.

 
• Drainage is a necessary management practice for land use in eastern North Carolina and most of the Coastal plain areas of the Atlantic Coast and Southeastern U.S. The drainage in place today resulted form over two centuries of dredging and channelization of natural streams. One of the negative impacts of channelization is the natural riparian vegetation adjacent to the stream/channel was removed. There is considerable interest in restoring riparian buffer vegetation and function. Rules recently adopted for the Neuse River Basin provide protection of existing buffers and regulatory incentives to restore riparian vegetation along many streams. Where streams have been channelized and the shallow flow paths lowered below the potential root zone, there is not known if merely establishing vegetation will restore the water quality function of the riparian buffer. It is generally acknowledged that forested buffers are more effective at removing nitrogen in shallow groundwater flow prior to entry into the stream. It is also agree that forested vegetation enhances other stream ecological function. In general, landowers are not anxious to re-establish forest vegetation along streams. Landowner concerns include stream maintenance, loss land, shading of remaining cropland resulting in yield loss and competition for fertilizer nutrients. The objective of this study is to quantify the influence of vegetation type on water quality function of riparian buffers and document the interaction between type of vegetation, root depth and the depth of shallow groundwater flow towards the stream.

 
• Cooperators: Wendell Gilliam (Soil Science), Steve Washburn (Animal Science), Matt Poore (Animal Science), Jim Green (Crop Science), and NCDA Cherry Farm Unit.

 
• Graduate Students: Michael Dukes (BAE); Sheryl Kunickus (Soil Science)

 
• View Dukes Spring '98 Seminar

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