Relationships between stream water chemistry and military land use in forested watersheds in Fort Benning, Georgia Shirish Bhat a , Jennifer M. Jacobs b, * , Kirk Hatfield a , Joseph Prenger c a Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA b Department of Civil Engineering, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA c Soil and Water Science Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA Received 1 February 2004; accepted 13 June 2005 Abstract Within a military land activity context, relationships between stream water chemistry and watershed land use, topography and vegetation were explored at the Fort Benning Military Installation, Georgia. Water quality parameters, including pH, temperature, conductivity, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, total phosphorus, total organic carbon, chloride, and total suspended solids, were routinely measured in seven watersheds from October 2001 to September 2003. Military land use was categorized by the bare ground extent, road network, and designated military zones in each watershed as well as by soil characteristics and forest type. Natural watershed variables, area and soil texture, influenced the stream water pH and total phosphorus, respectively. The stream water total phosphorus, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, total organic carbon, and total suspended solids were well predicted by at least one aspect of military management as an explanatory variable. Stream water total Kjeldahl nitrogen and total organic carbon were negatively correlated with military land extent. While the military land extent did not show significant relationships with either total phosphorus or chloride, the road network used to support military training had significant relationships with both total phosphorus and chloride. # 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Watershed characteristics; Land use; Stream water quality; Military training; Disturbance; Fort Benning 1. Introduction Land surface characteristics’ influence on water dynamics, evapotranspiration, interception, infiltra- tion, and percolation affect water fluxes and quality of receiving water bodies (LeBlanc et al., 1997). The relationship between land use and water quantity and quality is complex (Gburek and Folmar, 1999; Ngoye and Machiwa, 2004). It is also well investigated across many landscapes including agricultural, managed forests, urban, and relatively pristine environments. However, few studies have addressed military land- scapes. Results from previous studies in similar environ- ments can inform the study of military land use and water quality. Changes in land use and land This article is also available online at: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolind Ecological Indicators 6 (2006) 458–466 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 603 862 0635; fax: +1 603 862 3957. E-mail address: jennifer.jacobs@unh.edu (J.M. Jacobs). 1470-160X/$ – see front matter # 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2005.06.005