An Estimated Structural Equation Model to Assess the Effects of Land Use on Water Quality and Benthic Macroinvertebrates in Streams of the Nam-Han River System, South Korea
The extent of anthropogenic land use in watersheds determines the amount of pollutants discharged to streams. This indirectly and directly affects stream water quality and biological health. Most studies have therefore focused on ways to reduce non-point pollution sources to streams from the surroun...
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doaj-dbaff8e5888b41fdb6077a5243bdf9ec2020-11-25T03:31:06ZengMDPI AGInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health1660-46012020-03-01176211610.3390/ijerph17062116ijerph17062116An Estimated Structural Equation Model to Assess the Effects of Land Use on Water Quality and Benthic Macroinvertebrates in Streams of the Nam-Han River System, South KoreaJong-Won Lee0Sang-Woo Lee1Kyung-Jin An2Soon-Jin Hwang3Nan-Young Kim4Graduate Program, Department of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, Konkuk University, Gwangjin-Gu, Seoul 05029, KoreaDepartment of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, Konkuk University, Gwangjin-Gu, Seoul 05029, KoreaDepartment of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, Konkuk University, Gwangjin-Gu, Seoul 05029, KoreaDepartment of Environmental Health Science, Konkuk University, Gwangjin-Gu, Seoul 05029, KoreaDepartment of Environmental Health Science, Konkuk University, Gwangjin-Gu, Seoul 05029, KoreaThe extent of anthropogenic land use in watersheds determines the amount of pollutants discharged to streams. This indirectly and directly affects stream water quality and biological health. Most studies have therefore focused on ways to reduce non-point pollution sources to streams from the surrounding land use in watersheds. However, the mechanistic pathways between land use and the deterioration of stream water quality and biological assemblages remain unclear. This study estimated a structural equation model (SEM) representing the impact of agricultural and urban land use on water quality and the benthic macroinvertebrate index (BMI) using IBM AMOS in the Nam-Han river systems, South Korea. The estimated SEM showed that the percent of urban and agricultural land in the watersheds significantly affected both the water quality and the BMI of the streams. Specifically, a higher percent of urban land use had directly increased the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and total phosphorus (TP), and deteriorated the BMI of streams. Similarly, higher proportions of agricultural land use had also directly increased the BOD, total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) concentrations, and lowered the BMI of streams. In addition, it was observed that the percent of urban and agricultural land use had indirectly deteriorated the BMI through increased BOD. However, we were not able to observe any significant indirect effect of the percent of urban and agricultural land use through increased nutrients including TN and TP. These results indicate that increased urban and agricultural land use in the watersheds had directly and indirectly affected the physicochemical characteristics and benthic macroinvertebrate communities in streams. Our findings emphasize the need to develop more elaborate environmental management and restoration strategies to improve the water quality and biological status of streams.https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/6/2116land usewater qualitystreamstructural equation modelbenthic macroinvertebrates |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Jong-Won Lee Sang-Woo Lee Kyung-Jin An Soon-Jin Hwang Nan-Young Kim |
spellingShingle |
Jong-Won Lee Sang-Woo Lee Kyung-Jin An Soon-Jin Hwang Nan-Young Kim An Estimated Structural Equation Model to Assess the Effects of Land Use on Water Quality and Benthic Macroinvertebrates in Streams of the Nam-Han River System, South Korea International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health land use water quality stream structural equation model benthic macroinvertebrates |
author_facet |
Jong-Won Lee Sang-Woo Lee Kyung-Jin An Soon-Jin Hwang Nan-Young Kim |
author_sort |
Jong-Won Lee |
title |
An Estimated Structural Equation Model to Assess the Effects of Land Use on Water Quality and Benthic Macroinvertebrates in Streams of the Nam-Han River System, South Korea |
title_short |
An Estimated Structural Equation Model to Assess the Effects of Land Use on Water Quality and Benthic Macroinvertebrates in Streams of the Nam-Han River System, South Korea |
title_full |
An Estimated Structural Equation Model to Assess the Effects of Land Use on Water Quality and Benthic Macroinvertebrates in Streams of the Nam-Han River System, South Korea |
title_fullStr |
An Estimated Structural Equation Model to Assess the Effects of Land Use on Water Quality and Benthic Macroinvertebrates in Streams of the Nam-Han River System, South Korea |
title_full_unstemmed |
An Estimated Structural Equation Model to Assess the Effects of Land Use on Water Quality and Benthic Macroinvertebrates in Streams of the Nam-Han River System, South Korea |
title_sort |
estimated structural equation model to assess the effects of land use on water quality and benthic macroinvertebrates in streams of the nam-han river system, south korea |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health |
issn |
1660-4601 |
publishDate |
2020-03-01 |
description |
The extent of anthropogenic land use in watersheds determines the amount of pollutants discharged to streams. This indirectly and directly affects stream water quality and biological health. Most studies have therefore focused on ways to reduce non-point pollution sources to streams from the surrounding land use in watersheds. However, the mechanistic pathways between land use and the deterioration of stream water quality and biological assemblages remain unclear. This study estimated a structural equation model (SEM) representing the impact of agricultural and urban land use on water quality and the benthic macroinvertebrate index (BMI) using IBM AMOS in the Nam-Han river systems, South Korea. The estimated SEM showed that the percent of urban and agricultural land in the watersheds significantly affected both the water quality and the BMI of the streams. Specifically, a higher percent of urban land use had directly increased the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and total phosphorus (TP), and deteriorated the BMI of streams. Similarly, higher proportions of agricultural land use had also directly increased the BOD, total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) concentrations, and lowered the BMI of streams. In addition, it was observed that the percent of urban and agricultural land use had indirectly deteriorated the BMI through increased BOD. However, we were not able to observe any significant indirect effect of the percent of urban and agricultural land use through increased nutrients including TN and TP. These results indicate that increased urban and agricultural land use in the watersheds had directly and indirectly affected the physicochemical characteristics and benthic macroinvertebrate communities in streams. Our findings emphasize the need to develop more elaborate environmental management and restoration strategies to improve the water quality and biological status of streams. |
topic |
land use water quality stream structural equation model benthic macroinvertebrates |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/6/2116 |
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