Factors affecting the effectiveness of riparian buffers in retaining sediment: an isotopic approach
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Factors affecting the effectiveness of riparian buffers in retaining sediment: an isotopic approach Giovanna Gomes Cordeiro & Vinicius Vasconcelos & Luiz Felippe Salemi & Gabriela Bielefeld Nardoto
Received: 28 April 2020 / Accepted: 22 October 2020 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Riparian forest width is a major driver of their capacity to retain sediments from agricultural fields. However, the relationship between forest width and ecosystem service provisioning may vary with local environmental conditions such as relief, soil, and vegetation types. In order to assess the effect of forest width, slope, hydraulic conductivity, and land cover (watershed scale) on the effectiveness of riparian buffers in retaining sediment from pastures cultivated with African C4 grasses, we used the natural abundance of carbon stable isotopes (δ13C) in the soil and stream organic sediments as indicators. The study was conducted in small streams of the upper Corumbá River basin, state of Goiás (Cerrado biome), Brazil. We found that slight increases from 2 to 5% mean slope were sufficient to change SOM to a mixture of C3 and C4 carbon sources inside the riparian forests. Therefore, hillslope’s steepness and magnitude control soil transport downslope, but after reaching the riparian forest, sediment retention is strongly affected by the forest width. We also found
Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007 /s10661-020-08705-4. G. G. Cordeiro (*) : V. Vasconcelos : G. B. Nardoto Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] L. F. Salemi Núcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas Ambientais e Limnológicos, Faculdade de Planaltina, Universidade de Brasília, Planaltina, Distrito Federal, Brazil
that soil erosion leads to fine sediment deposition in agricultural streams, especially in those watersheds with a high occurrence of degraded pastures. We conclude that sites along the stream course with a combination of steep slopes, narrow forests, and intensive land use are the most vulnerable to sediment inputs and should be the focus of preservation and restoration by landscape managers. Keywords Carbon stable isotopes . Cerrado . Pasture . Riparian forest width . Slope
Introduction Agricultural and livestock production is essential to supply the global demand for food, fiber, and timber (Godfrey et al. 2010; Tilman et al. 2011). However, it can also compromise the functioning of natural ecosystems and biodiversity maintenance as a consequence of fertilizer and pesticide use, soil degradation, habitat loss, and forest fragmentation (Laurance et al. 2014). Landscape planning is one of the main strategies to mitigate the negative impacts of land use, especially on the catchment scale (Barbosa et al. 2004; Lima et al. 2017; Opdam 2016; Sano et al. 2019). This strategy seeks to integrate agricultural practices with the provision of multiple ecosystem services. In this context, the preservation of ri
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