Although agricultural influence on sediment runoff is well known, determining what sources of sediment contribute most to stream impairment has remained challenging in agricultural watersheds across the world. Therefore, methods to distinguish the sources of sediment in streams are warranted, particularly methods that incorporate information on anthropogenic practices that affect sediment runoff. In this study we examined how variations in conservation practices contributed to unidentified sources of sediment in an agricultural watershed, where 49% of sediment was sourced from agricultural fields that were assumed to have little erosional runoff. We found that variations in the way no-till agriculture is practiced significantly affected estimates of erosion in the watershed and also led agency managers to overlook sources of sediment in the watershed. In doing this research, we provide a methodological framework that may be useful to researchers who are attempting to identify sources of sediment erosion in watersheds impacted by variations in agricultural conservation practices.

中文翻译：

---

关于免耕保护实践的变化如何导致农业流域沉积物径流估算不准确的物理和社会分析

尽管农业对沉积物径流的影响是众所周知的，但在世界各地的农业流域中，确定哪些沉积物来源对河流损害的贡献最大仍然具有挑战性。因此，区分溪流中沉积物来源的方法是有必要的，特别是结合影响沉积物径流的人为实践信息的方法。在这项研究中，我们研究了保护实践的变化如何导致农业流域中不明来源的沉积物，其中 49% 的沉积物来自假定几乎没有侵蚀径流的农田。我们发现，免耕农业实践方式的变化显着影响了流域侵蚀的估计，还导致机构管理人员忽视了流域中沉积物的来源。在进行这项研究时，我们提供了一个方法框架，可能对试图确定受农业保护实践变化影响的流域中沉积物侵蚀来源的研究人员有用。