Effects of forestry on summertime low flows and physical fish habitat in snowmelt-dominant headwater catchments of the Pacific Northwest
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Non UBC
department or school: Geography, Department of
data provider: DSpace
identifier citation: Gronsdahl, S., Moore, R.D., Rosenfeld, J., McCleary, R., Winkler, R.D. 2019. Effects of forestry on summertime low flows and physical fish habitat in snowmelt-dominant headwater catchments of the Pacific Northwest. Hydrological Processes 33: 3152–3168.
contributor: University of British Columbia. Applied Aquatic Research Unit
creator: Gronsdahl, Stefan
creator: Moore, R. Daniel
creator: Rosenfeld, Jordan
creator: McCleary, Rich
creator: Winkler, Rita
issued: 2021-11-02T15:23:37Z
issued: 2019-09-02
description: Periods of summertime low flows are often critical for fish. This study quantified the impacts of forest clearcutting on summertime low flows and fish habitat and how they evolved through time in two snowmelt-dominant headwater catchments in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. A paired-catchment analysis was applied to July-September water yield, the number of days each year with flow less than 10% of mean annual discharge, and daily streamflow for each calendar day. The post-harvest time series were divided into treatment periods of approximately 6-10 years, which were analyzed independently to evaluate how the effects of forestry changed through time. An instream flow assessment using a physical habitat simulation (PHABSIM)-style approach was used to relate streamflow to the availability of physical habitat for resident rainbow trout. About two decades after the onset of logging and as the extent of logging increased to approximately 50% of the catchments, reductions in daily summertime low flows became more significant for the JulySeptember yield (43%) and for the analysis by calendar day (11-68%). Reductions in summertime low flows were most pronounced in the catchment with the longest post-harvest time series. Based on the temporal patterns of response, we hypothesize that the delayed reductions in late-summer flow represent the combined effects of a persistent advance in snowmelt timing in combination with at least a partial recovery of transpiration and interception loss from the regenerating forests. These results indicate that asymptotic hydrological recovery as time progresses follow logging is not suitable for understanding the impacts of forest harvesting on summertime low-flows. Additionally, these reductions in streamflow corresponded to persistent decreases in modelled fish habitat availability that typically ranged from 20-50% during the summer low-flow period in one of the catchments, suggesting that forest harvest may have substantia…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/80131
note: This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi: 10.1002/hyp.13580 This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. Moore R. Dan (Orcid ID: 0000-0003-2869-7543) Effects of forestry on summertime low flows and physical fish habitat in snowmelt-dominant headwater catchments of the Pacific Northwest Stefan Gronsdahl1, R. Dan Moore1*, Jordan Rosenfeld2, Rich McCleary3, Rita Winkler3 1 Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC, V6T 1Z2 2 Applied Aquatic Research Unit, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4 3 Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, Kamloops, BC * Corresponding author: Email: dan.moore@ubc.ca Keywords Low flows, fish, forestry, headwater, hydrology, snowmelt-dominant, logging, instream flow assessment Acknowledgements The study was funded by the B.C. Government – Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development. Additional funding was supplied by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) through a Discovery Grant to RDM and through the UBC Geography Department. Jordyn Carss assisted with field work and data analysis. David Hutchinson of Water Survey of Canada provided access to streamflow data. Dr. Brett Eaton and Dr. Jason Leach provided valuable input and feedback that improved this study. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. ABSTRACT Periods of summertime low flows are often critical for fish. This study quantified the impacts of forest clearcutting on summertime low flows and fish habitat and how they evolved through time in two snowmelt-dominant headwater catchments in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. A paired-catchment analysis was applied t…
has type: Article
has type: Postprint
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0402929
language: eng
peer review status: Reviewed
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: Wiley
publisher DOI: 10.1002/hyp.13580
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Faculty
scholar level: Researcher
scholar level: Other
subject: low flows
subject: fish
subject: forestry
subject: headwater
subject: hydrology
subject: snowmelt-dominant
subject: logging
subject: instream flow assessment
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/80131