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

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；100 km2)上进行的，很少对大流域(&gt；1000 km2)进行研究。在我的NSERC探索基金(2005-2012年；2013/2015)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水文学的相对贡献的方法，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。我们的进展引发了一个重要的研究问题，这个问题将在本提案中得到解决。由于我们以前的研究通常将大流域视为“黑匣子”，它们不会导致理解支配大流域对森林干扰的累积水文响应的潜在机制和过程。因此，一个关键的研究需要是评估森林干扰如何在不同的空间和时间尺度上累积影响水文学。为了解决这个问题，需要一种嵌套的分水岭方法。

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.