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Harvard Forest REU Symposium Abstract 2008

• Title: Using GIS to examine the impacts of past and present land use on headwater stream morphology
• Author: Christine Urbanowicz (Gettysburg College)
• Abstract:

  Headwater streams are important interfaces between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Therefore, differences in headwater stream morphology are expected to reflect differences in past and present land-use. The study of this spatial and temporal relationship has important implications in understanding stream restoration, aquatic habitat availability, and land use management. I integrated data from a field survey of streams in northern Massachusetts with spatial land use data for 1830 and 1999. PCA ordinations and Kolmogorov Smirnov analyses revealed that out of eleven morphological attributes, substrate sand frequency and bankfull depth best correlated with 1999 land use composition. Forested area was the most dominant land use type in 1999, but developed and open land better explained variability in stream morphology. Stream morphology did not correlate strongly with 1830 land use, which was predominantly open land. The correlation between land use and stream morphology may be best attributed to differences in runoff and stream competence. The trends presented in this study suggest that the legacies of recent land use are evident in small headwater streams.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Research Category: Historical and Retrospective Studies; Watershed Ecology