Effects of Cattle Exclusion on Stream Habitat in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia

• Main Author: Price, Kendall Susan
• Other Authors: Biological Systems Engineering
• Format: Others
• Published: Virginia Tech 2014
• Subjects: water quality metrics; rapid habitat assessment; benthic macroinvertebrates; stream fencing; cattle; Virginia; Shenandoah Valley
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10919/31952; http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-04262012-205413/

Cattle exclusion from streams is believed to improve riparian vegetation, in-stream habitat, and composition of aquatic organisms. Yet research on the effects of cattle exclusion have yielded conflicting results. The goal of this study was to examine relationships between physical habitat and benthic macroinvertebrate populations with increasing downstream distance from cattle-impacted stream segments, and determine which physical habitat and chemical water quality parameters are affected by cattle presence. Macroinvertebrates from 24 sites in Rockingham County, VA were used to calculate bioassessment metrics. Fourteen sites made up 4 longitudinal studies where improvement of biotic condition with distance from cattle impact was examined. Linear regression and multilevel modeling results indicated improving macroinvertebrate assemblage with increasing distance downstream from cattle-impacted reaches. Presence of riparian trees and distance from impact had a positive influence on bioassessment scores. A total of 39 stream sites in the Shenandoah Valley were classified using the Rapid Habitat Assessment (RHA) which is based on 10 visual evaluations of physical characteristics. Four of the ten RHA parameters, embeddedness, bank stability, vegetative protection, and riparian vegetative zone width, along with the total RHA score, were associated with cattle presence. This study found that a) RHA factors reflect direct cattle impacts on the riparian zone, but RHA has limitations as a general predictor of cattle impact, b) cattle influence on benthic macroinvertebrates extends hundreds of meters beyond the immediate pasture boundary, and c) improvement in Virginia Stream Condition Index can be predicted as a function of distance downstream. === Master of Science