Predictions of stream nutrient and sediment yield changes following restoration of forested riparian buffers

Riparian tree planting is widely recognised as a means to improve water quality and stream habitat. However, shading of riparian pasture grasses can lead to channel widening, and riparian shade may limit the growth of macrophytes and algae that assimilate dissolved nutrients from the water column. We investigated concerns that riparian management could lead to increased yields of nutrients and sediments through a conceptual modelling exercise. A simple model of the trade-off between interception of nutrients in runoff by forest buffers versus reduction of in-stream uptake due to shade, predicted that a buffer strip alongside a small headwater stream would reduce nutrient export, while a buffer strip instigated as an isolated patch alongside a larger stream (c. >2.5 km2 upstream catchment size) would increase nutrient export, as the relative amount of nutrients trapped by the buffer decreases as the nutrient load present in the stream water increases. However, in these larger streams with width exceeding approximately 6 m, sufficient light may reach the streambed for plant and algal growth, which in turn would promote instream nutrient processing. At the peak of streambank erosion after planting, predicted total sediment yield (hillslope plus bank sources) was appreciably higher than the hillslope pasture yield, but sediment yield stabilised c. 35-40 years after planting. When planting was extended over 40 years in the model, the sediment yield never exceeded that in pasture before planting. This conceptual modelling exercise shows that riparian tree planting programmes should commence in the headwaters and progress downstream to avoid nutrient yield increases. Significant sediment yield from bank stored sediment of small streams can be expected until the channel reaches the more stable, original forested width, but progressive planting may decrease the peak loads of sediment.