Research PapersAssessing Transportation Infrastructure Impacts on Rangelands: Test of a Standard Rangeland Assessment Protocol
Section snippets
INTRODUCTION
The amount and extent of vehicle activity in rangelands of the world have rapidly increased in recent decades. This increase is due to a variety of factors including availability of all terrain vehicles, recreational activities, oil and gas development, and ex-urban development (Hansen et al. 2002; Williams 2003; Brown et al. 2005; Vias and Carruthers 2005; Watts et al. 2007; Leu et al. 2008). Development of renewable energy sources, including wind and solar, is predicted to lead to additional
General Approach
The study was conducted in three semiarid regions of the western United States: the Northern High Plains (Wyoming), the Colorado Plateau (Utah), and the Chihuahuan Desert (New Mexico; Fig. 1; Table 1). Coupled qualitative and quantitative protocols were applied across a broad spectrum of impacts caused by common road and trail types in the three regions. The study was conducted at four sites for each of four road types in each of the three regions for a total of 48 sites sampled. Each site was
Attribute Level
Significant differences in qualitative attribute rating distributions (P < 0.05) were detected among the three distance classes (Near, < 5 m; Far, 5–10 m; and Control, > 40 m) with greater plot attribute departure from reference condition near disturbances (Fig. 3, open bars) across most attributes and each study area. In all three study areas, the differences between Control and disturbed plots (Near and Far) attribute rating departures were generally greater in Soil and Site Stability and
DISCUSSION
Results of this study indicate that IIRH is both sensitive to impacts and correlated to quantitative measures across many types of road-related disturbances and a broad range of ecosystems, although the severity of impacts detected varied. IIRH attribute ratings indicate that hydrologic function and soil and site stability are the primary ecosystem processes negatively impacted by road, trail, and pipeline development across all three ecological sites studied. Analysis of coupled
IMPLICATIONS
Results from this study indicate that IIRH is well suited and can be consistently applied for detecting areas adversely impacted by multiple stressors, including off-highway vehicle use and energy development, and has the potential to provide information on cumulative impacts. Because IIRH assessments are potentially a low-precision measurement (low repeatability over time with a variety of observers), they should not be used for monitoring. However, the integration of multiple observational
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many thanks to Michelle Mattocks, Stephanie Baker, and Chandra Tucker for assistance with field work. We would also like to thank local BLM and NRCS staff for assistance with planning and reference sheet development, including David Trujillo, Phil Smith, Shane Green, Dana Truman, Lynn Jackson, Arnie Irwin, Ben Adams, Kay Medders, Steve Hannan, and Janelle Gonzales. We would like to thank Skye Wills, Matt Bowker, Joel Brown, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.
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Cited by (21)
Road impacts to sheetflow-dependent ecosystems in the Sonoran Desert
2023, Journal of Arid EnvironmentsCitation Excerpt :Runon could more readily infiltrate upslope of and within unpaved roadways in these situations, whereas shallow restrictive horizons in older soils may promote ponding that eventually spills over obstructions, or they could transmit shallow subsurface flow beneath the roadway. The likelihood of vegetation changes from sheetflow alterations by roadways depends on interactions between road type and soil physical properties (Duniway et al., 2010; Duniway and Herrick 2013). For primitive roads at ORPI, the cumulative probabilities of significant sheetflow path alterations were highest on the well- and moderately well-drained soils of hydrologic soil groups A and B. Graded roads had higher even probabilities of hydrologic alterations on these soil groups, and all sheetflow path intersections on hydrologic soil group C resulted in upstream ponding.
A systematic review investigating linear infrastructure effects on Urban Heat Island (UHI<inf>ULI</inf>) and its interaction with UHI typologies
2022, Urban ClimateCitation Excerpt :From this analysis, ULIs can be defined to include transport (roads and rail) networks that occur as flyovers, at-grade, and underground and utility corridors (largely pipe networks) (refer to Table 2) (D'Lima and Medda, 2015). Traditional LI is considered grey infrastructure (Rosenbloom, 2018) and is a contributing factor to biodiversity loss (Duniway et al., 2010; Wang et al., 2014a) as well as having wider social and environmental impacts (Karlson and Mörtberg, 2015; Raiter et al., 2018). Grey infrastructure interferes the climate and microclimate through changes to the physical environment such as: surface materials; soil type and compaction; vegetation cover; wind; and urban hydrology and water bodies (Huang et al., 2013; Katz et al., 2014; Webb et al., 2014).
Insights from Long-Term Ungrazed and Grazed Watersheds in a Salt Desert Colorado Plateau Ecosystem
2018, Rangeland Ecology and ManagementCitation Excerpt :This relatively low response of vegetation but significant impacts on soils suggests that resource managers for these systems will need to consider indicators other than forage utilization or other vegetation-based assessments when evaluating livestock management (Herrick et al., 2002; Bestelmeyer et al., 2013). Qualitative/semiquantitative approaches such as the Interpreting Indicators of Rangeland Health, when applied appropriately, do include a multitude of indicators that are sensitive to changes in soil quality such as those observed here (Pellant et al., 2005; Duniway et al., 2010). Livestock-induced differences in runoff and erosion are particularly important for rangelands derived from Mancos Shale and similar saline geologic strata (e.g., Miller et al., 2017; see Fig. 1a).
Linear infrastructure impacts on landscape hydrology
2018, Journal of Environmental ManagementCitation Excerpt :Erosion severity was also significantly greater in the presence of linear infrastructure. These findings are consistent with other research that has pointed to a strong association between road networks, erosion, and surface water magnification in a variety of environments (Duniway and Herrick, 2013; Duniway et al., 2010; Jones et al., 2000; Keshkamat et al., 2013). Also in agreement with the literature (Duniway and Herrick, 2011; Jones et al., 2000; Katz et al., 2014), we found that linear infrastructure has widespread impacts on ephemeral streamflows, with some alteration to flows observed in 98% of cases where infrastructure crosses a streamline.
Disturbance automated reference toolset (DART): Assessing patterns in ecological recovery from energy development on the Colorado Plateau
2017, Science of the Total EnvironmentCitation Excerpt :Once comparable sites with similar ecological potential are identified, recovery over time can be assessed against those reference areas. Reference sites should be nearby to a disturbance, as to have roughly equivalent climate and management histories, with the only difference being the actual human impacts of interest (as is done in disturbance assessment field studies; e.g. Duniway et al., 2010b). The fields of digital soil mapping (DSM) (Grunwald et al., 2011; McBratney et al., 2003; Mulder et al., 2016; Scull et al., 2003) and predictive ecological modeling (PEM) (Chee et al., 2016; Elith et al., 2010; Guisan and Zimmermann, 2000; MacMillan et al., 2007) offer a wide range of geographic tools for creating both a spatial and thematic linkage between field sites for reference identification and critical zone assessment (Bui, 2016).
Assessing impacts of roads: Application of a standard assessment protocol
2013, Rangeland Ecology and Management
This work was funded by the Bureau of Land Management.
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