A paradigm shift in understanding and quantifying the effects of forest harvesting on floods in snow environments

Green, Kim C.; Alila, Younes

doi:10.1029/2012wr012449

Cited by 43 publications

(105 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…Stream responses to storms showed significant changes after HWA infestation for only extreme events, partially supporting our second hypothesis. Even with vigorous statistical analysis and the large sample sizes used in this study, making inferences from such results must be performed cautiously, especially when the only observed differences are at the tails of the distribution (Alila et al ., ; Green and Alila, ). However, several observations suggest that the changes observed in the extreme storms are physically relevant.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes to southern Appalachian water yield and stormflow after loss of a foundation species

et al. 2014

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Few studies have examined how insect outbreaks affect landscape‐level hydrologic processes. We report the hydrologic effects of the invasive, exotic hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) in a headwater catchment in the southern Appalachian Mountains. The study watershed experienced complete mortality of an evergreen tree species, Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carr. (eastern hemlock), after infestation was first detected in 2003. Hemlock mortality resulted in a ~6% reduction in basal area in the watershed, and this loss was primarily concentrated in riparian zones. We used a paired‐watershed approach to quantify changes in water yield and peak stormflow using streamflow data from the infested watershed and a nearby watershed with significantly lower hemlock basal area. We hypothesized that yield would increase shortly after hemlock infestation but decrease over the longer‐term. We found that annual yield did not increase significantly in any year after infestation but decreased significantly by 12·0 cm (~8%) in 2010. Monthly yield also decreased after infestation, but changes were limited to the dormant season. The decline in yield is likely to persist as hemlock is replaced by species with higher transpiration rates. Peakflow increased significantly after infestation during the two largest flow events in the post‐infestation period. Changes in stormflow during extreme events may have been temporary as another evergreen, Rhododendron maximum, may have mitigated some of the changes after hemlock loss. Thus, streams draining watersheds where eastern hemlock has been lost due to HWA infestation demonstrate permanent reductions in yield and transient increases in peakflow during large‐flow events. Published 2014. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes to southern Appalachian water yield and stormflow after loss of a foundation species

et al. 2014

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“…An analysis of flow frequency changes other than for completely cleared conditions (Figure b) was not performed in this study because of inherent methodological limitations. First, the 10‐year recurring meteorological data series used in this study lacks extreme flow events, and larger floods were shown to be more sensitive landcover changes when assessed by FP in snow‐dominated environments (Green and Alila, ). As noted in Alila et al (), the frequency analysis itself depends strongly on sample size, climate, and watershed physiography.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating hydrologic effects of spatial and temporal patterns of forest canopy change using numerical modelling

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Wei

et al. 2015

Hydrol. Process.

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Abstract:Although hydrologic responses to land cover changes are often studied using a paired watershed approach, it is not feasible to assess the hydrological effects of many different patterns of land cover alteration by empirical studies alone. An alternative is to use well validated, spatially explicit, physically based numerical models to estimate watershed storage and flux dynamics. The objectives of this study were to assess the sensitivity of watershed flow regimes to several spatial and temporal patterns of forest harvest and recovery in a snow-dominated mountain watershed. The Distributed Hydrology Soil-Vegetation Model (DHSVM) was parameterized using 1998-2007 climate data for the 28-km 2 Mica Creek Experimental Watershed (MCEW), a headwater catchment in the inland Pacific Northwest. The modelling experiment indicated that clear-cutting the entire watershed would increase runoff volume by 79% and 5 th percentile flows by 68%. Hydrologic recovery resulting from forest regeneration after clear-cut harvesting is expected to take up to 25 years to return to baseline conditions, and 50 years to fully recover to preharvest conditions. A more realistic harvesting scenario where the watershed was gradually harvested in a series of clear-cut blocks allowing for subsequent regeneration to occur was also assessed. This approach reduced the magnitude of hydrologic alteration. Analysis of several other scenarios, defined by aspect, elevation, and distance to the stream network, revealed that flow regime was more sensitive to the amount of alteration rather than pattern and landscape position of disturbance.

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“…Our calculated changes in maximum daily yield-including chronological pairings-were compared to changes derived using frequency pairing of modelled flows generated from UPC data by Green and Alila (2012) and Schnorbus and Alila (2013). The interaction term was considered significant when p ≤ .05.…”

Section: Paired Watershed Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Summarizing research from a broad range of snowmeltdominated watersheds, Bosch and Hewlett (1982) also suggest that changes in annual yield following vegetation removal only occur in areas where annual precipitation exceeds~500 mm. Research also shows that internal watershed processes can affect streamflow response, while local climate conditions can affect both the magnitude and duration of that response (Biederman et al, 2015;Green & Alila, 2012;Zhao, Zhang, Xu, & Scott, 2010). These small or undetectable changes were thought to be due either to drier soils and lower runoff generation in areas with less precipitation or to desynchronisation of snowmelt runoff from disturbed and undisturbed areas.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This approach pairs daily flows of equal frequency, illustrating changes in the probability of occurrence of flows of a given magnitude rather than simply changes in the mean(Green & Alila, 2012). This approach pairs daily flows of equal frequency, illustrating changes in the probability of occurrence of flows of a given magnitude rather than simply changes in the mean(Green & Alila, 2012).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Streamflow response to clear‐cut logging on British Columbia's Okanagan Plateau

Winkler

Spittlehouse

Boon³

2017

Ecohydrology

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The Upper Penticton Creek watershed experiment has collected 28 years of streamflow data from 2 small snow-dominated watersheds on the Okanagan Plateau of British Columbia, where the effects of timber harvesting on streamflow regime are of broad concern. We apply 3 empirical analysis techniques to these data to evaluate changes in streamflow regime following clear-cut logging of 47% of the 241 Creek watershed, with the adjacent 240 Creek watershed serving as an unlogged control.While logging had only a small effect on annual yield (5% increase), the results of all 3 analysis techniques confirmed a dramatic change in the timing and magnitude of April through June streamflow. A paired watershed analysis showed that during the first 7 years post-logging, average April and May water yield increased by 29% and 19%, respectively, while June and July water yield decreased by 23% and 17%, respectively. This pattern of change was confirmed by significant increases in standardised April-May monthly total water yield. Changes in the daily flow duration curves for each month also show a 67% increase in daily yields exceeded ≤10% of the time in April and a 15% increase in May. Daily yields exceeded ≤10% of the time decreased by 24% in June and 17% in July. These streamflow shifts increase the risk of channel destabilization and damage to aquatic habitat during the snowmelt season, and water shortages in the Okanagan region early in the irrigation season (June through July).

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A paradigm shift in understanding and quantifying the effects of forest harvesting on floods in snow environments

Cited by 43 publications

References 82 publications

Changes to southern Appalachian water yield and stormflow after loss of a foundation species

Changes to southern Appalachian water yield and stormflow after loss of a foundation species

Evaluating hydrologic effects of spatial and temporal patterns of forest canopy change using numerical modelling

Streamflow response to clear‐cut logging on British Columbia's Okanagan Plateau

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