Rainfall redistribution, temporal oscillation of streamflow, variation of soil water content, evapotranspiration and sediment transport of two Pinus radiata and two Eucalyptus globulus catchments were determined. The catchments are located in the Coastal Range of southern central Chile. Due to their age, these plantations are to be harvested soon. The P. radiata plantations registered an interception loss of 17 and 16 %, values surpassing significantly the eucalyptus values of 10 and 11 %. The streamflows of the same catchments were 705 resp. 707 mm and 439 resp. 500 mm for the monitored period of 14 months. Despite the higher amount of rainfall reaching the soil in the eucalyptus-catchments, these catchments registered low streamflow compared to the pine-catchments. During the dry summer, all soils showed a severe reduction of their soil water content, exceeding the permanent wilt point in the soil's upper 30 cm. The E. globulus-catchments registered an evapotranspiration equal to 1,582 and 1,469 mm while it reached values of 1,357 and 1,298 in the P. radiata-catchments. These values correspond, for the E. globulus-catchments, to 74 and 68 % of total precipitation and 63 and 60 % for the P. radiata-catchments. These differences may be higher if water availability during summer drought does not limit the total evapotranspiration. The sediment export reached values of 237 and 615 kg/ha for the P. radiata-catchments and 152 and 125 kg/ha for the E. globulus-catchments during the monitored period.

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Abstract. Streamflow in south-central Chile (SCC, ∼ 37-42 • S) is vital for agriculture, forestry production, hydroelectricity, and human consumption. Recent drought episodes have generated hydrological deficits with damaging effects on these activities. This region is projected to undergo major reductions in water availability, concomitant with projected increases in water demand. However, the lack of long-term records hampers the development of accurate estimations of natural variability and trends. In order to provide more information on long-term streamflow variability and trends in SCC, here we report findings of an analysis of instrumental records and a tree-ring reconstruction of the summer streamflow of the Río Imperial (∼ 37 • 40 S-38 • 50 S). This is the first reconstruction in Chile targeted at this season. Results from the instrumental streamflow record (∼ 1940 onwards) indicated that the hydrological regime is fundamentally pluvial with a small snowmelt contribution during spring, and evidenced a decreasing trend, both for the summer and the full annual record. The reconstruction showed that streamflow below the average characterized the post-1980 period, with more frequent, but not more intense, drought episodes.We additionally found that the recent positive phase of the Southern Annular Mode has significantly influenced streamflow. These findings agree with previous studies, suggesting a robust regional signal and a shift to a new hydrological scenario. In this paper, we also discuss implications of these results for water managers and stakeholders; we provide rationale and examples that support the need for the incorporation of tree-ring reconstructions into water resources management.

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