2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference

March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH

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5/26/2021 | 8:30 AM - 10:30 AM | WATER QUALITY AND BIOLOGICAL IMPACTS OF NONPOINT SOURCE POLLUTION FROM NEW AND EXISTING POULTRY OPERATIONS IN NORTHEAST ARKANSAS | Virtual Platform

WATER QUALITY AND BIOLOGICAL IMPACTS OF NONPOINT SOURCE POLLUTION FROM NEW AND EXISTING POULTRY OPERATIONS IN NORTHEAST ARKANSAS

Poultry and livestock agriculture continue to expand in Northeast Arkansas, increasing the potential for nutrient enrichment and ecological degradation in critical waterways in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. We sampled twelve tributaries of the Eleven Point and Black rivers from June 2019 to February 2020 to determine if relationships exist between poultry and livestock agriculture metrics and water quality, periphyton abundance, and invertebrate community structure and physiology. We found no significant relationships between animal agriculture and stream nutrient levels averaged over the study, though we observed a positive relationship between poultry house density and phosphorus concentrations (R2= 0.84, p= 0.001) during summer. Additionally, fewer pollution-intolerant macroinvertebrate taxa were found in tributaries closer to poultry farm operations (R2= 0.65, p= 0.03). Our findings suggest that streams near poultry farming operations need targeted mitigation to prevent further declines in sensitive invertebrate taxa. These efforts to determine the impact of animal agriculture are critical as poultry operations continue to expand in Arkansas, potentially impacting water quality and biological condition throughout the Mississippi Alluvial Plain.

Anthropogenic
Management
Nutrients

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Presenters/Authors

Olivia Echols (), Lyon College, olivia.echols@lyon.edu;