Geology topics

Research about Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2026

Conservation enhances resilience of the United States Duck Factory as environmental shifts may diminish landscape-scale waterfowl breeding capacity

Wetlands in the U.S. Prairie Pothole Region (USPPR) provide habitat for an estimated 5 million breeding ducks and remain a focal point for North American waterfowl conservation. After decades of investment, almost 20% of the USPPR is protected by some form of wetland or grassland conservation. We synthesized four decades of modeling studies aimed at understanding how environmental change may impact duck populations. We built upon past modeling efforts by applying an integrated scenario-based approach to inform wetland-waterfowl conservation planning. By century’s end, all scenarios projected declines (27%–53%) in breeding duck abundance in the USPPR. Despite these declines, areas in the USPPR with higher rates of protection and wetland density will likely continue to support the most breeding ducks, indicating resilient conservation planning. Our findings underscore the benefits of interdisciplinary efforts that can inform complex conservation decision-making in the face of environmental uncertainty.

Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dako↗

USGS2022

The potential of Prairie Pothole wetlands as an agricultural conservation practice: A synthesis of empirical data

Nutrient pollution causing harmful algal blooms and eutrophication is a major threat to aquatic systems. Throughout North America, agricultural activities are the largest source of excess nutrients entering these systems. Agricultural intensification has also been a driver in the historical removal of depressional wetlands, contributing to increased hydrological connectivity across watersheds, and moving more nutrient runoff into terminal waterbodies such as the Laurentian Great Lakes and Gulf of Mexico. The Prairie Pothole Region of North America (PPR) supports grassland, cropland, wetland, and riverine systems that connect to the Missouri, Mississippi, and Red River Basins. There is a need to synthesize scientific understanding to guide more targeted conservation efforts and better understand knowledge gaps. We reviewed 200 empirical studies and synthesized results from across a minimum of 9 and maximum of 43 wetland basins (depending on the variable data available). We found an average wetland removal rate of nitrate and phosphate of 53% and 68%, respectively. Literature also showed sedimentation rates to be twice as high in wetland basins situated within croplands compared to grasslands. Our synthesis enhances understanding of nutrient processing in wetlands of the PPR and highlights the need for more empirical field-based studies throughout the region.

Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dako↗

USGS2022

Prairie wetlands as sources or sinks of nitrous oxide: Effects of land use and hydrology

National and global greenhouse gas (GHG) budgets are continually being refined as data become available. Primary sources of the potent GHG nitrous oxide (N 2 O) include agricultural soil management and burning of fossil fuels, but comprehensive N 2 O budgets also incorporate less prominent factors such as wetlands. Freshwater wetland GHG flux estimates, however, have high uncertainty, and wetlands have been identified as both sources and sinks. Here, we analyzed a regional database of >26,000 N 2 O chamber flux measurements sampled across >150 wetlands from the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) in the Great Plains of North America. Our goal was to identify important land use and hydrologic drivers of N 2 O flux to help reduce uncertainty in N 2 O models, and to incorporate these drivers into an upscaled estimate of wetland N 2 O emissions from the U.S. portion of the PPR. Within individual wetlands, exposed soils with no standing water, such as along wetland edges, were hotspots that accounted for greater than 90% of wetland N 2 O emissions. In contrast wet (i.e., ponded) areas had minimal or negative N 2 O flux. N 2 O flux from wetlands nested within croplands (16.3–17.3 μg N 2 O m −2 hr −1 ) was, in some instances, nearly double that from wetlands within grasslands (9.2–14.4 μg N 2 O m −2 h −1 ). We estimated that seasonal N 2 O flux from PPR wetlands equated to roughly 0.2% (1.04 Tg CO 2 equivalents) of the U.S. N 2 O budget (c. 2019). Overall, even though PPR wetlands are a small net source of N 2 O to the atmosphere, their emissions are negligible relative to agricultural soil management. Policy and management to restore wetland hydrology and surrounding uplands from cropland to grasslands can reduce landscape N 2 O fluxes. Future activities focused on wetland N 2 O flux would benefit from inclusion of adjacent land use and hydrologic factors, as well as from incorporation of temporally dynamic ponded wetland areas.

Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dako↗

USGS2020

Soil organic carbon stocks and sequestration rates of inland, freshwater wetlands: Sources of variability and uncertainty

Impacts of land use, specifically soil disturbance, are linked to reductions of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. Correspondingly, ecosystem restoration is promoted to sequester SOC to mitigate anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, which are exacerbating global climate change. Restored wetlands have relatively high potential to sequester carbon compared to other ecosystems, but SOC accumulation rates are variable, which leads to high uncertainty in sequestration rates. To assess soil properties and carbon sequestration rates of freshwater mineral soil wetlands, we analyzed an extensive database of SOC concentrations from the Prairie Pothole Region (549 wetlands over 160,000 km 2 ), which is considered one of the largest wetland ecosystems in North America. We demonstrate that SOC of wetland catchments varies among inner, transition, toe slope, and upland landscape positions (LSPs), as well as among land uses and soil depth segments. Soil organic carbon concentrations were greatest in the inner portion of the catchment (66 Mg ha −1 ) and progressively decrease towards the upland LSP (43 Mg ha −1 ). We also conducted a regional extrapolation based on LSP- and land-use-specific SOC stocks, and estimated that wetland and upland areas of PPR wetland catchments contain 141 and 178 Tg of SOC in the upper 15 cm of the soil profile, respectively. Regressing SOC by restoration age (years restored) showed that sequestration rates, which differ by LSP and depth, ranged from 0.35 to 1.10 Mg ha −1 year −1 . Using these SOC sequestration rates, along with data from natural and cropland reference sites, we estimated that it takes 20 to 64 years for SOC levels of restored wetlands to return to natural reference conditions, depending on LSP and depth segment. Accounting for LSP reduces uncertainty and should refine future assessments of the greenhouse gas mitigation potential from wetland restoration.

Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dako↗

USGS2019

Wildlife value orientation of landowners from five states in the upper midwest, USA

Five Upper Midwest states (Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa) participated in a Plains and Prairie Landscape Conservation Cooperative (PPP-LCC) funded survey of landowners. All five surveys included a 13-item wildlife value orientation (WVO) scale to provide insight into how landowners in this region make land use decisions that affect wildlife habitat. Most landowners were utilitarian (59%), 11% were identified as mutualists, and pluralists and distanced landowners were 15% each. Pluralist and mutualist landowners placed more importance on wildlife considerations when making land use decisions compared to utilitarian and distanced landowners. However, landowners’ WVO was not related to their participation in United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Bill conservation programs. The proportion of WVO types among landowners varied considerably by age cohort. The proportion of utilitarians was highest for landowners born during the 1970s age cohorts and has since declined.

Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dako↗

USGS2012

Influence of conservation programs on amphibians using seasonal wetlands in the Prairie Pothole region

Extensive modification of upland habitats surrounding wetlands to facilitate agricultural production has negatively impacted amphibian communities in the Prairie Pothole Region of North America. In attempts to mitigate ecosystem damage associated with extensive landscape alteration, vast tracks of upland croplands have been returned to perennial vegetative cover (i.e., conservation grasslands) under a variety of U.S. Department of Agriculture programs. We evaluated the influence of these conservation grasslands on amphibian occupancy of seasonal wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region. Using automated call surveys, aquatic funnel traps, and visual encounter surveys, we detected eight amphibian species using wetlands within three land-use categories (farmed, conservation grasslands, and native prairie grasslands) during the summers of 2005 and 2006. Seasonal wetlands within farmlands were used less frequently by amphibians than those within conservation and native prairie grasslands, and wetlands within conservation grasslands were used less frequently than those within native prairie grasslands by all species and life-stages we successfully modeled. Our results suggest that, while not occupied as frequently as wetlands within native prairie, wetlands within conservation grasslands provide important habitat for maintaining amphibian biodiversity in the Prairie Pothole Region.

Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dako↗