Seeing the climate through the trees: observing climate and forestry impacts on streamflow using a 60-year record

T. P. Burt; N. J. K. Howden; J. J. McDonnell; J. A. Jones; G. R. Hancock

doi:10.1002/hyp.10406

Seeing the climate through the trees: observing climate and forestry impacts on streamflow using a 60-year record

T. P. Burt^*, N. J. K. Howden, J. J. McDonnell, J. A. Jones, G. R. Hancock

^*Corresponding author for this work

Geography & Environment

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

23 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Paired watershed experiments involving the removal or manipulation of forest cover in one of the watersheds have been conducted for more than a century to quantify the impact of forestry operations on streamflow. Because climate variability is expected to be large, forestry treatment effects would be undetectable without the treatment-control comparison. New understanding of climate variability provides an opportunity to examine whether climate variability interacts with forestry treatments, in a predictable manner. Here, we use data from the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest, Oregon, USA, to examine the impact of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation on streamflow linked to forest harvesting. Our results show that the contrast between El Nino and La Nina events is so large that, whatever the state of the treated watershed in terms of regrowth of the forest canopy, extreme climatic variability related to El Nino-Southern Oscillation remains the more dominant driver of streamflow response at this location. Improvements in forecasting interannual variation in climate might be used to minimize the impact of forestry treatments on streamflow by avoiding initial operations in La Nina years. Copyright (C) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	473-480
Number of pages	8
Journal	Hydrological Processes
Volume	29
Issue number	3
Early online date	14 Jan 2015
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.10406
Publication status	Published - 30 Jan 2015

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank two anonymous referees for their comments on the original manuscript. This research was begun when TPB and GRH were Visiting Fellows at the Institute for Water & Watersheds, College of Forestry, Oregon State University. Data sets were provided by the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest research programme, funded by the National Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research Program (DEB 0823380), US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station and Oregon State University. Grateful thanks to Don Henshaw for updates.

Funded by
National Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research Program. Grant Number: DEB 0823380
US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station
Oregon State University

Keywords

paired watershed
forest hydrology
ENSO
H. J. Andrews
SEA-SURFACE TEMPERATURE
SOUTHERN-OSCILLATION
UNITED-STATES
RESPONSES

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1002/hyp.10406Licence: Unspecified

Cite this

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title = "Seeing the climate through the trees: observing climate and forestry impacts on streamflow using a 60-year record",

abstract = "Paired watershed experiments involving the removal or manipulation of forest cover in one of the watersheds have been conducted for more than a century to quantify the impact of forestry operations on streamflow. Because climate variability is expected to be large, forestry treatment effects would be undetectable without the treatment-control comparison. New understanding of climate variability provides an opportunity to examine whether climate variability interacts with forestry treatments, in a predictable manner. Here, we use data from the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest, Oregon, USA, to examine the impact of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation on streamflow linked to forest harvesting. Our results show that the contrast between El Nino and La Nina events is so large that, whatever the state of the treated watershed in terms of regrowth of the forest canopy, extreme climatic variability related to El Nino-Southern Oscillation remains the more dominant driver of streamflow response at this location. Improvements in forecasting interannual variation in climate might be used to minimize the impact of forestry treatments on streamflow by avoiding initial operations in La Nina years. Copyright (C) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.",

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note = "Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank two anonymous referees for their comments on the original manuscript. This research was begun when TPB and GRH were Visiting Fellows at the Institute for Water & Watersheds, College of Forestry, Oregon State University. Data sets were provided by the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest research programme, funded by the National Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research Program (DEB 0823380), US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station and Oregon State University. Grateful thanks to Don Henshaw for updates. Funded by National Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research Program. Grant Number: DEB 0823380 US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station Oregon State University",

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AU - Jones, J. A.

AU - Hancock, G. R.

N1 - Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank two anonymous referees for their comments on the original manuscript. This research was begun when TPB and GRH were Visiting Fellows at the Institute for Water & Watersheds, College of Forestry, Oregon State University. Data sets were provided by the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest research programme, funded by the National Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research Program (DEB 0823380), US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station and Oregon State University. Grateful thanks to Don Henshaw for updates. Funded by National Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research Program. Grant Number: DEB 0823380 US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station Oregon State University

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N2 - Paired watershed experiments involving the removal or manipulation of forest cover in one of the watersheds have been conducted for more than a century to quantify the impact of forestry operations on streamflow. Because climate variability is expected to be large, forestry treatment effects would be undetectable without the treatment-control comparison. New understanding of climate variability provides an opportunity to examine whether climate variability interacts with forestry treatments, in a predictable manner. Here, we use data from the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest, Oregon, USA, to examine the impact of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation on streamflow linked to forest harvesting. Our results show that the contrast between El Nino and La Nina events is so large that, whatever the state of the treated watershed in terms of regrowth of the forest canopy, extreme climatic variability related to El Nino-Southern Oscillation remains the more dominant driver of streamflow response at this location. Improvements in forecasting interannual variation in climate might be used to minimize the impact of forestry treatments on streamflow by avoiding initial operations in La Nina years. Copyright (C) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

AB - Paired watershed experiments involving the removal or manipulation of forest cover in one of the watersheds have been conducted for more than a century to quantify the impact of forestry operations on streamflow. Because climate variability is expected to be large, forestry treatment effects would be undetectable without the treatment-control comparison. New understanding of climate variability provides an opportunity to examine whether climate variability interacts with forestry treatments, in a predictable manner. Here, we use data from the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest, Oregon, USA, to examine the impact of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation on streamflow linked to forest harvesting. Our results show that the contrast between El Nino and La Nina events is so large that, whatever the state of the treated watershed in terms of regrowth of the forest canopy, extreme climatic variability related to El Nino-Southern Oscillation remains the more dominant driver of streamflow response at this location. Improvements in forecasting interannual variation in climate might be used to minimize the impact of forestry treatments on streamflow by avoiding initial operations in La Nina years. Copyright (C) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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KW - SEA-SURFACE TEMPERATURE

KW - SOUTHERN-OSCILLATION

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KW - RESPONSES

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ER -

Seeing the climate through the trees: observing climate and forestry impacts on streamflow using a 60-year record

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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