Influence of multi-decadal land use, irrigation practices and climate on riparian corridors across the Upper Missouri River headwaters basin, Montana.

ABSTRACT: The Upper Missouri River headwaters (UMH) basin (36 400 km²) depends on its river corridors to support irrigated agriculture and world-class trout fisheries. We evaluated trends (1984-2016) in riparian wetness, an indicator of the riparian condition, in peak irrigation months (June, July and August) for 158 km² of riparian area across the basin using the Landsat normalized difference wetness index (NDWI). We found that 8 of the 19 riparian reaches across the basin showed a significant drying trend over this period, including all three basin outlet reaches along the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin rivers. The influence of upstream climate was quantified using per reach random forest regressions. Much of the interannual variability in the NDWI was explained by climate,

SUBMITTER: Vanderhoof MK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7751644 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature