•Land use types have varying effects on lake water quality due to different vegetation cover
•Vegetation cover influences surface runoff and erosion
•Land use patterns and temporal trends essential to evaluate ecosystem health
Land use dramatically influences an area’s
contribution to nutrient loading in a watershed (see Background, Land
use).Different types of land
use typically have different types of vegetation cover. Vegetation cover
greatly influences surface runoff by promoting or retarding erosion through
runoff control, soil stabilization, and protection.Forested land, for example, provides
excellent erosion prevention, while cleared land, which has limited
vegetative cover, represents an erosion hazard.Understanding the vegetative cover of the watershed and
temporal trends in the corresponding land use types is critical to assessing
the viability of the Lake Wesserunsett ecosystem.Developing this understanding is the goal of the land use
portion of this study.