Perth Laboratory – Public Seminar Series 2009

Streamside Vegetation Function in Promoting Water Quality in Forested and Agricultural Catchments

Dan Neary
CSIRO McMaster Research Fellow
US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Arizona, USA

Thursday 21 May 2009 at 3.30pm, CSIRO Auditorium

Abstract

Streamside management zones (SMZs) are special landscape units that include riparian areas and adjacent forest lands that are frequently used as buffer strips to mitigate sediment and nutrient movement from upland forest and agricultural management areas. They are strips of land along rivers or lakes that are given special management consideration. The size, shape, and management of SMZs are governed by various combinations of economic, ecological, and regulatory factors. They function as and are often recognized as important barriers or treatment areas that protect water resources from non-point source sediment. Vegetation and the geomorphic characteristics of these buffer strips produces infiltration, filtering, and deposition of sediment-laden water flowing off of intensively managed forestry and agriculture lands. The effectiveness of vegetation in riparian areas for trapping sediment depends upon the velocity of water flow, size distribution of sediments, slope and length of slope above the riparian buffer, slope and length of the buffer strip, depth of water flow into the riparian zone, vegetation characteristics such as type, density, and height. This presentation will examine important SMZ processes and illustrate them with examples from forest management operations and agriculture. It will also provide an update of current research in Tasmania to evaluate the impacts of streamside forest harvesting on water quality.

About the speaker

Dan Neary is a Science Team Leader and Research Soil Scientist with the Southwest Watershed Team, Air, Water & Aquatics Science Program, of the USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Flagstaff, Arizona. He has a B.S. (Forestry), M.S. (Forest Ecology), and Ph.D. (Forest Soils and Hydrology) from Michigan State University, and is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of Arizona, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Florida.

Dan has worked in New Zealand, North Carolina, and Florida on the water quality effects of various forest disturbances (harvesting, site preparation, herbicide application, wastewater disposal, fertilizer treatments, debris avalanches, prescribed fire, and wildfire). His current research is on the watershed-scale effects of prescribed fire and wildfires on soils and water resources. Dan is a Certified Professional Soil Scientist, Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America, and Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy.

• More information about Dan Neary

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