Floodplain Forest’s Contribution to Gulf Water Quality to be Studied: New Research Seeks to Quantify Impacts in the Mississippi River Basin

The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) has awarded a $42,000 grant to two USDA Forest Service scientists to synthesize existing research about the impacts of floodplain reforestation and forest management practices on water quality and flood attenuation. Dr. Ying Ouyang, a research hydrologist for the USDA Center for Bottomland Hardwoods Research at Mississippi State University, and Dr. Theodor Leininger, project leader of the USDA Center for Bottomland Hardwoods Research in Stoneville, MS, received the award. Their research will address two key subject areas:

• The impact of forest management practices and reforestation programs on the addition of nutrients and sediment to watersheds; and,
• The effect of forest management practices and reforestation programs on flood attenuation.
• The focus of the review is the Mississippi River and rivers that flow into the Gulf of Mexico.

“Forests have multiple impacts on water quality and flood attenuation in headwaters, floodplains, and coastal zones” said Carlton Owen, President & CEO of the Endowment. “It is widely believed that forests play an important role in reducing agricultural nutrients and run-off from reaching rivers. This research is an important step in better documenting and quantifying those impacts, particularly for reforestation and other forest management practices in watersheds connected to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico.”

The Ouyang-Leininger team will conduct a literature review regarding the relationship between forests and soils with a focus on erosion control, sediment dynamics, nutrient fluxes, and soil biogeochemistry. They will summarize what is known and identify knowledge gaps to be answered with new research. They will also do some modeling to evaluate the functions of future reforestation on reducing water yields and mitigating nutrient and sediment loads into streams and rivers and ultimately the Gulf. One desirable outcome from the research would be a metric or “predictor” that can be used by state natural resource agencies, counties, and communities to estimate potential water quality improvements or flood attenuation impacts from future reforestation and forest management efforts such as the conversion of frequently flooded cropland to bottomland hardwood forests.

Information and analysis from this project is likely to have a substantial impact on current reforestation and forestry Best Management Practices efforts for mitigating water resource risks and enhancing flood attenuation in the Mississippi River Basin and adjacent Gulf of Mexico Watersheds.