Seasonal and successional streamflow response to forest cutting and regrowth in the northwest and eastern United States

Abstract

[1] This study examined daily streamflow response over up to four decades in northwest conifer forest and eastern deciduous forest sites in the United States. We used novel methods to analyze daily observations of climate and streamflow spanning more than 900 basin years of record at 14 treated/control basin pairs where forest removal and regrowth experiments were underway in the period 1930-2002. In the 1 to 5-year period after forest removal, maximum daily increases ranged from 2 to 3 mm at deciduous forest sites, to 6 to 8 mm at conifer forest sites. Significant spring surpluses persisted for up to 35 years in conifer forest basins, but winter and spring streamflow deficits appeared after 10 to 15 years of forest regrowth in eastern deciduous forest basins. In all 5-yr posttreatment periods, absolute changes in daily streamflow were significantly more likely during moist, warm seasons, or during snowmelt seasons, but relative changes were more likely during warm seasons irrespective of moisture status. Both relative and absolute streamflow changes in the 1 to 5 and 15 to 25-year periods after forest removal were significantly positively related to the age of the forest at the time it was cut. Eastern deciduous forests had been disturbed by logging or hurricane 12 to 56 years prior to forest removal, while Pacific Northwest conifer forests had been not experienced logging or wildfire for 90 to 450 years. Paired basin experiments provide a continuous, and continuously changing, record of vegetation structure, composition, and climate, and their effects on streamflow.

Torrential floods and town and country planning in Serbia

“…Clear cutting and removal of the vegetation influence the water balance by affecting evapotranspiration and possibly snow accumulation and melt. These activities increase the peak discharge by as much as 50 % in small basins and 100 % in large basins (Jones and Post, 2004). Timber harvesting has the potential to increase the total flow and lengthen the duration of larger flows while enabling sediment movement (Troendle and Olsen, 1994).…”

The effects of cumulative forest disturbance on streamflow in a large watershed in the central interior of British Columbia, Canada

“…Landuse changes or forest disturbances are believed to mitigate or even overwhelm climatic effects on streamflow. For example, in three long-term experimental forests (Andrews, Coweeta, and Hubbard Brook) increments of daily streamflow in the late summer and early fall caused by forest harvest can be up to 300% in the early years after disturbance, while climate induced changes in streamflow can be 10-50 % (Jones and Post, 2004).…”

A temporal change study of the Muda River system over 22 years

“…As more land cover is cleared out or altered by human activities, the combined influence of manmade structures and climatic changes, such as high rainfall over a short period of time (JICA, 1995), accelerate the channel's broadening and thus facilitate more instability in the banks and erosion. Tree clearing influences the water yield in the stream while also changing the timing of the peak flow (MacDonald and Stednick, 2003;Jones and Post, 2004). The removal of the forest canopy causes a decrease in interception and transpiration in a basin, and a decrease in transpiration leads to an increase in the storage of water in the soil (MacDonald and Stednick, 2003).…”