Comparing the overall width and water quality of the riparian habitat between sites

Background/Question/Methods    

Streams can be affected by numerous factors, for example excessive use of fertilizers in nearby soils.  Streams can recover from such stresses by natural remediation, such as the use of vegetation buffers in the riparian zone.  The objective of this project was to determine if there is an association between riparian zone width and water quality. More specifically, we investigated whether there is a relationship between the riparian zone width of certain streams sites and the quantity of total suspended solids (TSS) and total phosphorus (TP) that are in the water column. We utilized the database of EPSCoR Streams Project, a program dedicated to collecting and sharing data from streams of the Lake Champlain basin in Vermont.  The data used are from 2008-2011 and were part of an undergraduate summer research internship conducted in collaboration with high school students.

Results/Conclusions

The data were analyzed using simple linear regression. Our results show that there is a relationship between riparian zone width and quantity of total suspended solids (TSS) and total phosphorus (TP). Where the riparian zone is wide, TSS are higher and TP is lower.  The analysis suggests that riparian zones play an important role in the quantity of TSS and TP that arrive to the stream. Knowing the relationship between the riparian zone width and the water quality in each stream site can help us to identify someof the factors that can directly affect the Lake Champlain and his community in Vermont.