Impacts of Forest Disturbance on Hydrology in Large Watersheds

森林干扰对大流域水文的影响

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-03969
• 负责人: Wei, Xiaohua
• 金额: $ 2.7万
• 依托单位: University of British Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2014-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=566207
• 关键词: Impacts; Forest; Disturbance; Hydrology; Large

The impact of forest disturbance on hydrology has long been an important research topic, but the majority of this research has been conducted on small watersheds (<100km2) with rare examination of large ones (>1000km2). It is commonly accepted that the results from small watersheds are difficult to extrapolate to large watersheds. Large watershed studies are constrained by the difficulty of conducting paired-watershed experiments, and by insufficient data, landscape complexity and lack of accepted methodologies. However, growing demand for information at large spatial scales to support forest and watershed management highlights a critical need for the research of large watersheds. With the support from my NSERC Discovery Grants (2005-2012; 2013/2014), we have successfully developed a research method for separating relative contributions of forest disturbance and climate variability to hydrology in large watersheds, and the applications of the method have been published on the high-impact journals (e.g., Water Resources Research, Journal of Hydrology). The objectives of this new research (2014-2019) include: (1) applying our well-established methodology in 10 more large watersheds from the interior of British Columbia to assess the cumulative effect of forest disturbance (mainly wildfire, mountain pine beetle infestation, timber harvesting or commonly their combinations) on hydrology; (2) using the VIC model to predict the cumulative effects of future forest disturbance and climate change scenarios on hydrology in three of the selected watersheds; and 3) using an integrated meta-data analysis to develop emerging watershed properties or indices which can effectively explain large variations on hydrological responses to watershed disturbance in large watersheds. Those selected watershed properties or indices will help establish a conceptual framework on watershed sensitivity assessment, which can be further tested in boreal watersheds or elsewhere. My longer-term goal (beyond this proposal) is to establish a research program entitled “Forest Disturbance, Climate and Hydrology in Large Watersheds” to advance watershed ecosystem science. Availability of numerous large watersheds (35-40) with excellent data in the British Columbia interior provides an exceptional opportunity to achieve my goal. The proposed research will provide important and timely information for BC to manage forest disturbance to protect aquatic functions. It will allow development of forest disturbance thresholds as well as identification of possible emerging watershed properties or indices for explaining large variations on hydrological responses to forest disturbance among different watersheds. Finally, this project will train 2 HQPs and 4-5 undergraduate students who will be specialized in ecohydrology and water science/management.

长期以来，森林干扰对水文学的影响一直是一个重要的研究课题，但大多数研究都是在小流域(&lt；100km2)上进行的，对大流域(&gt；1000km2)的研究很少。人们普遍认为，从小流域得出的结果很难外推到大流域。大流域研究受制于进行流域配对实验的难度，以及数据不足、景观复杂性和缺乏公认的方法。然而，对支持森林和流域管理的大空间尺度信息的需求日益增长，凸显了对大流域研究的迫切需要。在我的NSERC探索基金(2005-2012；2013/2014)的支持下，我们成功地开发了一种分离森林干扰和气候变化对大流域水文学的相对贡献的研究方法，并在高影响力的期刊(如《水资源研究》、《水文学杂志》)上发表了该方法的应用。这项新研究(2014-2019年)的目标包括：(1)在不列颠哥伦比亚省内陆的另外10个大型流域应用我们成熟的方法，评估森林干扰(主要是野火、山松甲虫侵扰、木材采伐或通常是它们的组合)对水文学的累积影响；(2)使用VIC模型预测未来森林干扰和气候变化情景对其中3个流域水文学的累积影响；以及(3)利用综合元数据分析开发新的流域特性或指数，能够有效解释大型流域对流域干扰的水文响应的巨大变化。这些选定的分水岭属性或指数将有助于建立分水岭敏感性评估的概念框架，可在北方分水岭或其他地方进一步测试。我的长期目标(除了这项提议之外)是建立一个名为“大流域的森林干扰、气候和水文学”的研究计划，以促进流域生态系统科学的发展。在不列颠哥伦比亚省内陆有许多具有出色数据的大流域(35-40)，这为实现我的目标提供了一个难得的机会。这项研究将为BC管理森林干扰、保护水生功能提供重要和及时的信息。它将有助于制定森林干扰阈值，并确定可能出现的分水岭特性或指数，以解释不同分水岭对森林干扰的水文反应有很大差异。最后，该项目将培训2名HQP和4-5名本科生，他们将专门从事生态水文学和水科学/管理。