Using a Nested Watershed Approach to Assess Cumulative Effects of Forest Disturbance on Hydrology in a Sub-Boreal Forested Watershed

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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 (<100 km2) with rare examination of large ones (>1000 km2). With the support from my NSERC Discovery Grants (2005-2012; 2013/2015), we have successfully developed a method for separating relative contributions of forest disturbance and climate variability to hydrology, and the applications of the method have been published on the high-impact journals (e.g., Water Resources Research, Journal of Hydrology). Our progress has led an important research question, which will be addressed in this proposal. As our previous studies normally treated large watersheds as “black boxes”, they would not lead to understanding of underlying mechanisms and processes which govern the cumulative hydrological responses to forest disturbance in large watersheds. Thus, a critical research need is to assess how forest disturbance cumulatively influences hydrology over different spatial and temporal scales. To address this question, a nested watershed approach is required.