Managing nitrate-nitrogen in the intensively drained upper Mississippi River Basin, USA under uncertainty: a perennial path forward

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.