Effects of fire‐precipitation timing and regime on post‐fire sediment delivery in Pacific Northwest forests

Lanini, J; Clark, E.; Lettenmaier, Dennis P.

doi:10.1029/2008gl034588

Cited by 20 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…DHSVM (Wigmosta et al ., ) is a physically based, fully distributed time‐continuous hydrologic model that mostly has been applied to mountainous watersheds at a high spatial resolution (30 m to hundreds of metres) to simulate surface and subsurface run‐off at subdaily to hourly time steps. It has been extensively applied in numerous studies on different aspects of hydrology, for example, mountain hydrology (Leung and Wigmosta, ; Bowling and Lettenmaier, ; Whitaker et al ., ), urban hydrology under conditions of climate and land cover change (Cuo et al ., , ) and sediment transport (Doten et al ., ; Lanini et al ., ). DSHVM operates on spatially linked grid cells, each of which employs full water and energy balance solutions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

A spatially distributed model for the assessment of land use impacts on stream temperature in small urban watersheds

et al. 2014

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Abstract:Stream temperatures in urban watersheds are influenced to a high degree by changes in landscape and climate, which can occur at small temporal and spatial scales. Here, we describe a modelling system that integrates the distributed hydrologic soil vegetation model with the semi-Lagrangian stream temperature model RBM. It has the capability to simulate spatially distributed hydrology and water temperature over the entire network at high time and space resolutions, as well as to represent riparian shading effects on stream temperatures. We demonstrate the modelling system through application to the Mercer Creek watershed, a small urban catchment near Bellevue, Washington. The results suggest that the model was able to produce realistic streamflow and water temperature predictions that are consistent with observations. We use the modelling construct to characterize impacts of land use change and near-stream vegetation change on stream temperatures and explore the sensitivity of stream temperature to changes in land use and riparian vegetation. The results suggest that, notwithstanding general warming as a result of climate change over the last century, there have been concurrent increases in low flows as a result of urbanization and deforestation, which more or less offset the effects of a warmer climate on stream temperatures. On the other hand, loss of riparian vegetation plays a more important role in modulating water temperatures, in particular, on annual maximum temperature (around 4°C), which could be mostly reversed by restoring riparian vegetation in a fairly narrow corridor -a finding that has important implications for management of the riparian corridor.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

A spatially distributed model for the assessment of land use impacts on stream temperature in small urban watersheds

et al. 2014

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“…The explicit representations of evapotranspiration and soil water dynamics make the model a suitable tool for runoff prediction resulting from land-cover changes (Vanshaar et al, 2002). DHSVM has been applied to a variety of forested settings in Pacific Northwest where it was demonstrated to accurately simulate streamflows over multi-decadal time periods that capture forest regeneration and regrowth after harvesting (Waichler et al, 2005), post-fire hydrological processes (Lanini et al, 2009), and predict how flows may be affected by forest roads (LaMarche and Lettenmaier, 2001).…”

Section: Model Descriptionsmentioning

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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“…Although forest fire disturbance is extensive in the snow-dominated headwaters of most western USA watersheds (Gleason et al, 2013) and such disturbance is projected to increase across the western USA (Moritz et al, 2012;Abatzoglou and Kolden, 2013;Dennison et al, 2014), forest fire impacts on snow accumulation and snowmelt patterns are still poorly understood and only rarely considered in snow hydrology (Lanini et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Charred forests accelerate snow albedo decay: parameterizing the post‐fire radiative forcing on snow for three years following fire

Gleason

Nolin

2016

Hydrological Processes

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Abstract:As large, high-severity forest fires increase and snowpacks become more vulnerable to climate change across the western USA, it is important to understand post-fire disturbance impacts on snow hydrology. Here, we examine, quantify, parameterize, model, and assess the post-fire radiative forcing effects on snow to improve hydrologic modelling of snow-dominated watersheds having experienced severe forest fires. Following a 2011 high-severity forest fire in the Oregon Cascades, we measured snow albedo, monitored snow, and micrometeorological conditions, sampled snow surface debris, and modelled snowpack energy and mass balance in adjacent burned forest (BF) and unburned forest sites. For three winters following the fire, charred debris in the BF reduced snow albedo, accelerated snow albedo decay, and increased snowmelt rates thereby advancing the date of snow disappearance compared with the unburned forest. We demonstrate a new parameterization of post-fire snow albedo as a function of days-since-snowfall and net snowpack energy balance using an empirically based exponential decay function. Incorporating our new post-fire snow albedo decay parameterization in a spatially distributed energy and mass balance snow model, we show significantly improved predictions of snow cover duration and spatial variability of snow water equivalent across the BF, particularly during the late snowmelt period. Field measurements, snow model results, and remote sensing data demonstrate that charred forests increase the radiative forcing to snow and advance the timing of snow disappearance for several years following fire.

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Effects of fire‐precipitation timing and regime on post‐fire sediment delivery in Pacific Northwest forests

Cited by 20 publications

References 20 publications

A spatially distributed model for the assessment of land use impacts on stream temperature in small urban watersheds

A spatially distributed model for the assessment of land use impacts on stream temperature in small urban watersheds

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

Charred forests accelerate snow albedo decay: parameterizing the post‐fire radiative forcing on snow for three years following fire

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