TY - JOUR
T1 - Reassessing the relationship between landscape alteration and aquatic ecosystem degradation from a hydrologically sensitive area perspective
AU - Qiu, Zeyuan
AU - Kennen, Jonathan G.
AU - Giri, Subhasis
AU - Walter, Todd
AU - Kang, Yang
AU - Zhang, Zhen
N1 - Funding Information:
The views expressed in the paper are the authors' individual perspectives and do not necessarily represent the positions of their affiliated institutions or agencies. The authors gratefully acknowledge support by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture through an Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant (Grant number 2012-67019-19348 ). Recommendations for improving this manuscript provided by Ian Waite of the U.S. Geological Survey were greatly appreciated. Constructive comments from the journal reviewers also help improve the quality of the manuscript. The use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2019/2/10
Y1 - 2019/2/10
N2 - This study applies a novel landscape approach to empirically assess the linkage between terrestrial landscape alteration such as urbanization and aquatic ecosystem degradation from a hydrological sensitive area (HSA) perspective in 141 selected northern New Jersey watersheds. HSAs are hydrological “hotspots” in a watershed that actively contribute to runoff generation and were delineated using a soil topographic index. Land use metrics captured landscape alterations in terms of percentages of varying land uses in these watersheds and their HSAs. Aquatic ecosystem integrity was represented by a High Gradient Macroinvertebrate Index (HGMI) specifically developed for the stream types assessed in this study. Multiple linear regression (MLR) analysis was used to understand the relationships between land use metrics and HGMI score at the watershed- and HSA-scales and a data fitting procedure called Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) was used to identify the most statistically significant land use attributes to be retained in the MLR models. The modeling results at the HSA-scale showed more parsimonious and robust relationships between landscape alteration and aquatic integrity than at the watershed-scale in terms of both variable selection and statistical inference. While high intensity urbanization is a known stressor that can significantly degrade aquatic ecosystem integrity, the results indicate that landscapes developed more strategically by way of low intensity urbanization (e.g., rural residential) or on less hydrologically sensitive areas may lessen the detrimental effects of urbanization on aquatic ecosystem integrity. These findings support the premise that it is not just the extent of urbanization in a watershed that matters, but also the intensity and location of the disturbance on the landscape that affects aquatic ecosystem integrity. Such findings may encourage more flexible landscape planning and management practices that better protect HSAs from urban development in support of long-term aquatic ecosystem protection and restoration.
AB - This study applies a novel landscape approach to empirically assess the linkage between terrestrial landscape alteration such as urbanization and aquatic ecosystem degradation from a hydrological sensitive area (HSA) perspective in 141 selected northern New Jersey watersheds. HSAs are hydrological “hotspots” in a watershed that actively contribute to runoff generation and were delineated using a soil topographic index. Land use metrics captured landscape alterations in terms of percentages of varying land uses in these watersheds and their HSAs. Aquatic ecosystem integrity was represented by a High Gradient Macroinvertebrate Index (HGMI) specifically developed for the stream types assessed in this study. Multiple linear regression (MLR) analysis was used to understand the relationships between land use metrics and HGMI score at the watershed- and HSA-scales and a data fitting procedure called Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) was used to identify the most statistically significant land use attributes to be retained in the MLR models. The modeling results at the HSA-scale showed more parsimonious and robust relationships between landscape alteration and aquatic integrity than at the watershed-scale in terms of both variable selection and statistical inference. While high intensity urbanization is a known stressor that can significantly degrade aquatic ecosystem integrity, the results indicate that landscapes developed more strategically by way of low intensity urbanization (e.g., rural residential) or on less hydrologically sensitive areas may lessen the detrimental effects of urbanization on aquatic ecosystem integrity. These findings support the premise that it is not just the extent of urbanization in a watershed that matters, but also the intensity and location of the disturbance on the landscape that affects aquatic ecosystem integrity. Such findings may encourage more flexible landscape planning and management practices that better protect HSAs from urban development in support of long-term aquatic ecosystem protection and restoration.
KW - Aquatic ecosystem integrity
KW - Benthic macroinvertebrates
KW - Development intensity
KW - Hydrologically sensitive areas
KW - LASSO
KW - Urbanization
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U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.10.036
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.10.036
M3 - Article
C2 - 30373062
AN - SCOPUS:85054328500
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 650
SP - 2850
EP - 2862
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
ER -