Effects of Riparian Land Use and Land Cover on Water Quality Along the Kansas River: Seasonal and Spatial Dynamics

Abstract

Riparian land use and land cover (LULC) exerts scale- and season-dependent controls on surface water quality, yet its influence in regulated agricultural–urban rivers is poorly characterized. We combined seasonal t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and redundancy analysis (RDA) at three riparian buffer scales (500, 1000, and 2000 m) to examine discharge, dissolved oxygen (DO), temperature, turbidity, and pH at four USGS stations along the Kansas River mainstem (2019–2026). DO and temperature showed the strongest seasonal contrasts: DO was 3.1–3.7 mg/L higher in the dry season and temperature 13–15 °C higher in the wet season, a coupling central to aquatic habitat suitability. Turbidity rose significantly in the wet season, consistent with agricultural runoff and sediment mobilization, whereas discharge showed no significant seasonal difference at three of four stations, reflecting upstream reservoir regulation. Spatial ANOVA detected station-level differences only for wet-season DO (F3,28=4.91, p=0.007), which was lowest at the downstream urbanized station. RDA linked agricultural cover to turbidity and urban cover to reduced wet-season DO, although permutation tests were non-significant (p≥0.42) at n=4 replicates. Seasonality and riparian LULC jointly shape water quality along this regulated river, and the 500 m buffer is the most spatially discriminating scale for land-cover assessment.