Project Number: 6408-13660-006-00
Project Type: Appropriated

Start Date: Jan 26, 2007
End Date: Jan 25, 2012

Objective:
Develop and refine conservation technologies for implementation within agricultural watersheds that improve water quality and ecosystem function, contribute to TMDL and nutrient criteria development, and conserve natural resources by (1) evaluating farm and land management systems in Beasley Lake Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) watershed that are intended to reduce erosion, conserve soil, improve receiving water quality, and protect ecological resources; (2) determining the effectiveness of conservation practices for improving water and soil quality within the Yazoo River Basin to meet Total Maximum Daily Load criteria; (3) developing a database for Beasley Lake CEAP watershed that contains water, soil, ecological, and land management results from research conducted at field, farm, and watershed scales for assessment of conservation practices applicable to the Yazoo River Basin; (4) validating and quantifying uncertainties of model predictions for Beasley Lake CEAP watershed; (5) determining essential abiotic and biotic relationships required to effectively restore streams impaired by physical habitat degradation as defined by Total Maximum Daily Load criteria; and (6) assessing effects of conservation practices on off-site water quality for improved TMDL and nutrient criteria decision-making in agricultural watersheds impaired by non-point source pollution.

Approach:
There is extensive literature on agricultural conservation practices aimed at protecting water quality and ecological integrity. Most of this work, however, is based on small-scale studies, and findings often are not easily scaled up due to complex interactions at the whole-farm, watershed, and landscape scales. Therefore, effects of widespread implementation of conservation measures (i.e. BMPs) have not been demonstrated. Continued work is needed on assessing individual innovative BMPs. Furthermore, realistic ecological restoration experiments require additional work at the prototype scale. To address these issues, natural resource (water, soil, and biological quality) responses to conventional and innovative conservation measures will be studied across a range of scales to provide support for the goals of the Clean Water Act of 1972 (and its amendments) and the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002. This research will focus on quantifying and assessing impacts associated with conservation practice implementations in an economically efficient manner to reduce nutrient, pesticide, and sediment loadings to the nation's surface waters necessary to produce sustainable ecosystems. This plan calls for a set of complementary experiments dealing with physical, chemical, and ecological processes at a range of scales from the laboratory bench to the watershed.