Stream nutrient levels and proximity of agricultural and forest land to streams: Some relationships

The effectiveness of forested buffer strips for controlling nutrient loss from agricultural land to streams is not well documented. To clarify this effectiveness, an attempt was made to determine whether considering the proximity of two land use types (agriculture and forest) to streams improved the ability to predict nutrient levels over simply using the proportion of watersheds occupied by each land use. Results indicated that considering the proximity of these land uses did not improve this predictive ability. One reason may be that the long-term effects of near-stream vegetation in reducing stream nutrient levels is negligible.