Mapping watershed integrity for the conterminous United States.

ABSTRACT: Watershed integrity is the capacity of a watershed to support and maintain the full range of ecological processes and functions essential to sustainability. Using information from EPA's StreamCat dataset, we calculated and mapped an Index of Watershed Integrity (IWI) for 2.6 million watersheds in the conterminous US with first-order approximations of relationships between stressors and six watershed functions: hydrologic regulation, regulation of water chemistry, sediment regulation, hydrologic connectivity, temperature regulation, and habitat provision. Results show high integrity in the western US, intermediate integrity in the southern and eastern US, and the lowest integrity in the temperate plains and lower Mississippi Valley. Correlation between the six functional components was high

SUBMITTER: Thornbrugh DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5884453 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature