2022 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Virtual Conference

March 13 - 15, 2022

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5/26/2021  |   8:30 AM - 10:30 AM   |  Tile Drainage Increased Flashiness and Nitrate Concentrations in Midwestern Streams   |  Virtual Platform

Tile Drainage Increased Flashiness and Nitrate Concentrations in Midwestern Streams

Agricultural streams face many of the same stressors as urban streams, but lack the best recognized driver of “urban stream syndrome,” increased flashiness due to impervious surfaces quickly diverting precipitation to streams. However, industrialized row-cropping in temperate climates has its own massive network of pipes diverting water, hidden approximately 1m below soil, in the form of tile drainage. This study seeks to parse the effects of tile drainage on hydrology and nutrient excesses through structural equations modeling of the 28 sites in the USGS’s and USEPA’s 2013 Midwest Stream Quality Assessment co-located with National Water Information System automated stream gauges, allowing calculation of the Richards-Baker Flashiness Index paired with physical, chemical, and biological data. Results demonstrate that in the Midwest, while crop-heavy watersheds have less flashy streams than watersheds with more impervious and urban land uses, among cropped watersheds, tile-drained areas yield greater flashiness than non-tile-drained row crops. Stream nitrate concentration also increased significantly with tile drainage. In future attempts to understand and improve these entangled problems of flashiness and nitrate export from tile drainage, we may be able to learn from practices already attempted in urban settings.

  • Land use
  • Flow regime
  • Stream

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Presenters/Authors

Chelsea Clifford (), Iowa State University, chelseaclifford@gmail.com;


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Matthew Helmers (), Iowa State University, mhelmers@iastate.edu;


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