Evaluating Conservation Practice Adoption in Farmed Depressional Wetlands
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Date
2023-05
Authors
Schmidt, Shannon
Major Professor
Janke, Adam
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Schulte Moore, Lisa
Wolter, Peter
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Abstract
Utilizing precision agriculture as a means to achieve conservation has become increasingly accessible with evolving technology and more important with tightening farm margins and persistent environmental challenges in agriculture. The benefits of converting marginal farmland, such as flooding prone upland depressions, into perennial land cover range from economical to ecological. In addition to saving farmers money with better return on investments and higher profits, returning flood-prone depressions to perennial vegetation can reduce flooding, provide wildlife habitat, reduce sediment and nutrient loss, and help mitigate climate change. We sought to evaluate conservation adoption in upland depressions and understand characteristics of those depressions being converted from row crop agriculture to perennial vegetation. We identified and classified upland depressions falling inside row crop fields as row crop, partially perennial, or perennial. We summarized characteristics of each depression including size, depth, perimeter to area ratios, crop data, and hydric soils data to analyze if any characteristics were significant in predicting land use. We found that 3.82% of all agricultural depressions were either fully or partially planted with perennial vegetation. We also determined that the size, maximum depth, and proportion of area in more permanent historical wetland classes were positively associated with perennial land use in depressions. Finally, we developed and assessed guideline criteria for farmed upland depressions that should be targeted for conservation and identified over 40,000 acres of potential new conservation land.
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2023