A riparian buffer or stream buffer is a vegetated area adjacent to a stream that provides both shade for creatures that live along this buffer but help protect the stream from erosion and impact from adjacent land use, in particular from farming and agricultural uses.
Riparian Buffers are becoming a common conservation practice to help increase water quality and reduce pollution.
Water quality benefits
Riparian Buffer zones help intercept and collect sediment and nutrient runoff from the adjacent fields that may include pesticides and other materials or pollutants in the shallow water flow. They aid in counteracting eutrophication, which is when a body of water becomes overly enriched with minerals and nutrients which induce excessive growth of algae. An algal bloom increases phytoplankton in a pond, lake or river or coastal zone. Lake eutrophication has become a global problem with water pollution.
Habitat Benefits
Riparian buffers provide habitat for a large number of species and also provide a natural corridor for species who’s habitat has become fragmented by various land uses. Often these buffer zones are allowing for species to re-establish in an area after being displaced from their home habitat due to non-conservation land use.
Large trees along the waters edge aid providing shade and cooling of the water, and when large trees or stumps fall into the water the large woody debris provides additional habitat features and allows carbon to be added as an additional energy source.
Riparian Buffer Zone Design
Buffer zones are divided into three different zones each with its own purpose to aid in filtering runoff and interacting with the adjacent aquatic system.
Zone 1 – Functions with the use of taller trees to provide shade for the water source and act as a bank stabilizer. This is normally the smaller of the three zones and absorbs the fewest contaminants. This zone will be adjacent to the water source, forming the banks of the stream or river.
Zone 2- Made up of native shrubs to provide a habitat for wildlife, including nesting areas for bird species as well as acts to slow and absorb contaminates that are missed by zone 3. This zone lays between Zone 1 and Zone 3 and will aid in diverting runoff to groundwater sources before it reaches the water source.
Zone 3 - This zone forms the first line of defense against contaminants. It will consist mostly of native grasses and acts to slow water runoff and begin to absorb contaminants before they reach the other zones. This zone is furthest from the water source and closest to human use, for example beside agricultural land, urban areas including parking lots or industrial sites.
Consideration is also given to the width of the buffer strip depending on the adjacent land use, slope of the land, soil conditions, health of the stream, and creation of wildlife corridors.
Logging Requirements
To Log this Earthcache
Please send me your answers within 4 days of posting your found log. If there is more than one cacher in your party, include the names in your group. Only one person needs to send me the group answers. No spoiler photo's please. Found logs posted without proof you visited the site will be deleted.
Questions
- From the posted location, are you able to see an example of all three buffer zones when looking north up the water channel?
- Give an example of plants and vegetation you can see as described in the zones. If you do not see all three zones, describe which zones are visible with an example.
- Do you believe that this Riparian Buffer project is effective? Explain why or why not!
- From the write up, what is eutrophication, and give an example of what can happen when this occurs?
- Mandatory: Post a photo of you with your back towards Lake Erie from the bridge at waypoint # 2. Your face does not have to be in the photo.
