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Bacterial Water Quality Responses to Four Grazing Strategies—Comparisons with Oregon Standards
Author(s) -
Tiedemann A. R.,
Higgins D. A.,
Quigley T. M.,
Sanderson H. R.,
Bohn C. C.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
journal of environmental quality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.888
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1537-2537
pISSN - 0047-2425
DOI - 10.2134/jeq1988.00472425001700030025x
Subject(s) - grazing , livestock , environmental science , forage , water quality , fecal coliform , wildlife , watershed , distribution (mathematics) , sampling (signal processing) , zoology , hydrology (agriculture) , ecology , biology , mathematics , geotechnical engineering , mathematical analysis , machine learning , computer science , engineering , filter (signal processing) , computer vision
Concentrations of fecal coliform (FC) and fecal streptococcus (FS) were measured weekly during summer 1984 in streamwater of 13 wildland watersheds managed under four range management strategies. The strategies were (A) no grazing; (B) grazing without management for livestock distribution; (C) grazing with management for livestock distribution; and (D) grazing with management for livestock distribution and with cultural practices to increase forage. Counts of FC were compared to Oregon water quality standards. Data for FS were used for determining the FC/FS ratio to assess origin of FC organisms. Counts of FC were significantly lower under strategies A and C than under strategy D, but no significant differences were apparent among other strategy comparisons. Two strategy D watersheds violated the Oregon water quality 30‐d log 10 standard of no more than 2 × 10 3 FC L −1 (200 FC·100 mL −1 ). One watershed was in violation for most of the sampling period. Ratios of FC to FS indicated that wildlife was the major source of FC bacteria in strategies A, B, and C watersheds. Cattle were the primary source of FC bacteria on strategy D watersheds.