Abstract:
The upper Mississippi River basin has
been identified as the most significant contributor of
excessive nutrients to the hypoxic zone in the Gulf
of Mexico. The land-use changes from an internally
drained prairie-wetland complex to an intensively
managed corn-soybean production system drained by
subsurface tile drainage system in the north-central
Iowa and south-central Minnesota are the primary
cause of nutrient loads into the Mississippi River and
many other environmental stresses. The present study
summarizes the water-quality degradation from landuse
change and offers a fuzzy logic-based decision
support for assessing degree of suitability of the four
recommended perennial plant options for managing
water and nitrate-nitrogen export.