Hydrology, ecology & disturbance in the Western Boreal Forest phase 2 ( HEAD 2 ) : Forest harvest impacts and hydrologic recovery

森林采伐和油砂开发是阿尔伯塔省和加拿大经济的主要组成部分。总的来说，它们有很大的潜力影响西部北方森林（WBF）。从根本上了解水和能源途径与森林演替（一级或二级）和水文恢复之间的相互作用，是制定最佳林业管理做法和建立设计标准和基准的基石，而成功的复垦工作将根据这些标准和基准进行。我们的研究结合了a）在细（10公顷）和粗（> 10平方公里）尺度上的成对集水区森林收获实验，以及B）水文建模来开发管理框架。这个框架将被用来预测森林采伐的做法和植被演替的影响，水循环的地质和半湿润气候的WBF的影响。我们将开发景观指数，提供有关区域对特定干扰的响应的信息，并允许非水文学家预测和评估森林管理措施（FMP）对采伐地和森林演替对开垦景观的水文影响。该项目为加拿大林业和油砂工业带来的具体效益包括：1）新的或改进的景观水文模型，以描述西部北方森林现有和开垦景观的现状并预测其未来行为;（二）有效的规划工具，可用于制定严格和客观的科学标准和建议，FMP在给定规模下的水文后果，以及适当的复垦程序和油砂租赁的景观配置;以及3）用于监测和评估FMP和油砂复垦成功与否的适当且可防御的土壤和水文指标。我们预计，管理框架将使我们的研究成果被应用到省级水资源战略，并作为省级综合土地管理人员的指导方针。该框架也可在国家一级应用，促进不同区域之间的研究知识转让。

Forest harvesting and oil sands development are major components of the Albertan and Canadian economies. Collectively, they have a large potential to impact the Western Boreal Forest (WBF). A fundamental understanding of the interaction of water and energy pathways and forest succession (primary or secondary) and hydrologic recovery is the cornerstone to developing best forestry management practices and to establishing design criteria and benchmarks to which successful reclamation efforts will be built. Our research uses a combination of a) paired catchment forest harvest experiments at fine (10ha) and coarser (>10km2) scales, and b) hydrologic modelling to develop a management framework. This framework will be used to predict the influence of forest harvest practices and vegetation succession on water cycling as influenced by the geology and sub-humid climate of the WBF. We will develop landscape indices that provide information on an area's response to particular disturbances and allow non-hydrologists to predict and assess the hydrologic impacts of Forest Management Practices (FMP's) on harvested sites and forest succession on reclaimed landscapes. Specific deliverables of benefit to the Canadian forestry and oil sands industries arising from the project include: 1) new or refined landscape hydrologic models to describe the current and predict the future behaviour of existing and reclaimed landscapes characteristic of the Western Boreal Forest; 2) effective planning tools that can be used to develop rigorous and objective scientific criteria and recommendations for cumulative risk assessment of the hydrologic consequences of FMP at a given scale, and appropriate reclamation procedures and landscape configuration of oil sands leases; and 3) appropriate and defensible soil and hydrologic indicators for monitoring and assessing success of FMP and oil sands reclamation. We anticipate that the management framework will allow results of our research to be applied to provincial water strategies and to serve as guidelines for integrated land managers at the provincial level. The framework can also be applied at the national scale, facilitating the transfer of research knowledge among different regions.