SUMMARY
1 A review is presented of the literature on riparian vegetated buffer strips (VBS) for use in stream-water-quality restoration and limitations associated with their use are discussed. The results are also presented of recent investigations on the effectiveness of a forested and a grass vegetated buffer strip for reducing shallow subsurface inputs of nutrients from agriculture to a stream in central Illinois, U.S.A.
2 Because riparian zones link the stream with its terrestrial catchment, they can modify, incorporate, dilute, or concentrate substances before they enter a lotic system. In small to mid-size streams forested riparian zones can moderate temperatures, reduce sediment inputs, provide important sources of organic matter, and stabilize stream banks.
3 Several questions on the utility and efficiency of vegetated buffer strips for stream restoration still remain unanswered, including: what types (grass v forest) are most efficient; do they become nutrient saturated; are they only temporary sinks; how does species composition influence effectiveness; and, what is the optimal width of buffer to facilitate nutrient reduction under different conditions?
4 Water samples were collected (1989–90) from lysimeters located at three depths (60, 120, and > 120cm) in an upland area planted in conventional row crops (corn and soybean) and in three adjacent riparian buffer treatments, a 39m wide grass buffer. a 16 m wide mature forested buffer, and a buffer planted in row-crops to the stream bank. Concentrations of dissolved and total phosphorus and nitrate-N in each sample were determined following major precipitation events over a seventeen month period.
5 Both the forested and grass VBS reduced nitrate-N concentrations in shallow groundwater (up to 90% reduction). On an annual basis the forested VBS was more effective at reducing concentrations of nitrate-N than was the grass VBS, but was less efficient at retaining total and dissolved P.
6 During the dormant season, both grass and forested buffer strips released dissolved and total P to the groundwater. The VBS apparently acted as a nutrient sink for much of the year, but also released accumulated nutrients during the remaining portion of the year. Periodic harvesting of plant biomass may reduce the amount of P released during the dormant season.
7 VBSs are not as effective in agriculture areas with tile drained fields. Alternative restoration practices such as discharging drain tiles into wetlands constructed parallel to the stream channel may prove to be a more effective means of controlling non-point-source agricultural inputs of nutrients in such areas.

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Riparian vegetated buffer strips in water‐quality restoration and stream management

While external factors (drivers) determine the net heat energy and water delivered to a stream, the internal structure of a stream determines how heat and water will be distributed within and exchanged among a stream's components (channel, alluvial aquifer, and riparian zone/floodplain). Therefore, the interaction between external drivers of stream temperature and the internal structure of integrated stream systems ultimately determines channel water temperature. This paper presents a synoptic, ecologically based discussion of the external drivers of stream temperature, the internal structures and processes that insulate and buffer stream temperatures, and the mechanisms of human influence on stream temperature. It provides a holistic perspective on the diversity of natural dynamics and human activities that influence stream temperature, including discussions of the role of the hyporheic zone. Key management implications include: (1) Protecting or reestablishing in-stream flow is critical for restoring desirable thermal regimes in streams. (2) Modified riparian vegetation, groundwater dynamics, and channel morphology are all important pathways of human influence on channel-water temperature and each pathway should be addressed in management plans. (3) Stream temperature research and monitoring programs will be jeopardized by an inaccurate or incomplete conceptual understanding of complex temporal and spatial stream temperature response patterns to anthropogenic influences. (4) Analyses of land-use history and the historical vs contemporary structure of the stream channel, riparian zone, and alluvial aquifer are important prerequisites for applying mechanistic temperature models to develop management prescriptions to meet in-channel temperature goals.

An ecological perspective on in-stream temperature: natural heat dynamics and mechanisms of human-caused thermal degradation.

Although it is well known that metabolism, feeding, and behaviour of lotic organisms is influenced by various flow characteristics, hydraulic variables usually are not accurately measured in lotic ecology studies. Using an approach we call "hydraulic stream ecology", we link organismic responses to a more comprehensive treatment of the physical environment. Since a unified analytical solution for all important hydraulic variables in running waters does not exist at the moment, we advocate a simpler view of the physical system. We demonstrate methods for estimating complex hydraulic key characteristics, like turbulence in the free flow, turbulence close to the stream bottom, and the force of flow prevailing at the bottom. Calculations of these complex key characteristics require measurement of simple hydraulic characteristics like mean velocity, water surface slope, depth, bottom roughness, kinematic viscosity, and density of the water. The hydraulic environment shows characteristic patterns within whole c...

Hydraulic Stream Ecology: Observed Patterns and Potential Applications

The cow as a geomorphic agent — A critical review

We propose a hierarchical system of classifying stream habitats based on three increasingly fine descriptions of the morphological and hydraulic properties of channel geomorphic units. We define channel geomorphic units as areas of relatively homogeneous depth and flow that are bounded by sharp gradients in both depth and flow. Differences among these units provide a natural basis for habitat classification that is independent of spatial scale. At the most general level of resolution, we divide channel units into fast- and slow-water categories that approximately correspond to the commonly used terms “riffle” and “pool.” Within the fast-water category, we identify two subcategories of habitats, those that are highly turbulent (falls, cascades, chutes, rapids and riffles) and those with low turbulence (sheets and runs). Slow-water habitats include pools formed by channel scour (eddy pools, trench pools, mid-channel pools, convergence pools, lateral scour pools and plunge pools) and those formed be...

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A Hierarchical Approach to Classifying Stream Habitat Features

Throughout the United States, land managers are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of small streams for a wide range of resource benefits. Where channel morphology is modified or structural features are added, stream dynamics and energy dissipation need to be considered. Unit stream power, defined here as the time-rate loss of potential energy per unit mass of water, can be reduced by adding stream obstructions, increasing channel sinuosity, or increasing flow resistance with large roughness elements such as woody root systems, logs, boulders, or bedrock. Notable morphological features of small streams are pools, riffles, bed material, and channel banks. Pools, which vary in size, shape, and causative factors, are important rearing habitat for fish. Riffles represent storage locations for bed material and are generally utilized for spawning. The particle sizes and distributions of bed material influence channel characteristics, bedload transport, food supplies for fish, spawning conditions, cover, and rearing habitat. Riparian vegetation helps stabilize channel banks and contributes in various ways to fish productivity. Understanding each stream feature individually and in relation to all others is essential for proper stream management. Although engineered structures for modifying habitat may alter stream characteristics, channel morphology must ultimately be matched to the hydraulic, geologic, and (especially) vegetative constraints of a particular location.

Morphological features of small streams: significance and function

The restoration of vegetation adapted to riparian environments and the natural succession of riparian plant communities is necessary to recreate sustainable salmonid habitat and should be the focal point for fish habitat improvement programs. In mid-August of 1991, a field review of 16 Salmon habitat improvement sites in the Grande Ronde and John Day River Basins in Eastern Oregon was undertaken. The review team visited various types of fish habitat improvements associated with a wide range of reach types, geology, channel gradients, stream sizes, and vegetation communities. Enhancement objectives, limiting factors, landuse history, and other factors were discussed at each site. This information, in conjunction with the reviewer's field inspection of portions of a particular habitat improvement project, provided the basis for the following report. This report that follows is divided into four sections: (1) Recommendations, (2) Objectives, (3) Discussion and Conclusions, and (4) Site Comments. The first section represents a synthesis of major recommendations that were developed during this review. The remaining sections provide more detailed information and comments related to specific aspects of the field review.

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William S. Platts

Papers

Morphological features of small streams: significance and function

Field Review of Fish Habitat Improvement Projects in the Grande Ronde and John Day River Basins of Eastern Oregon.