People in Ecosystems/Watershed Integration: A dynamic watershed tool for linking agroecosystem outputs to land use and land cover

Excerpt

Land-use decisions in agriculturally-dominated regions such as the US Corn Belt largely attempt to maximize production of agricultural commodities. While this system is highly productive in terms of commodity crops, it also creates trade-offs in the form of negative environmental impacts (Robertson and Swinton 2005). Many unintended consequences of ecosystem impairment are subsequently passed on to society as “downstream” costs, which can span from local (e.g., fish kills in local streams) to global scales (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions) (Tegtmeier and Duffy 2004). Because of growing concern regarding these trade-offs, agricultural policy and grassroots social movements are moving toward the promotion of multifunctional landscapes to enhance commodity productivity, to produce a wider array of ecosystem goods and services for a broad suite of societal stakeholders, and to minimize (or eliminate) trade-offs (Ruhl et al. 2007; USDA 2008). For example, the Raccoon River watershed to the northwest of Des Moines, Iowa, provides important economic benefits for a multitude of private farm owners and operators, but it also provides drinking water and recreational opportunities for more than 400,000 people in the greater Des Moines area (DMWW 2010). A number of entities are working to maintain agricultural livelihoods while trying to increase the “awareness…