Quantifying The Water Resource Impacts Of Mountain Pine Beetle And Associated Salvage Harvest Operations Across A Range Of Watershed Scales

This paper presents the results of a project done to assess the potential for impacts and changes to the peak-flow regime throughout various sub-basins of the Fraser River Watershed. The vast size and the physical complexity of the Fraser River Basin make it extremely difficult to directly measure the hydrologic effects of beetle kill and salvage harvesting. As a result, a hydrology model has been used to assess the hydrologic consequences of the current outbreak. The project is part of a larger effort in quantifying the water resource impacts of the pine beetle and salvage harvesting across a range of watershed scales.--Includes text from document.

Hydrological processes in forested watersheds are influenced by environmental, physiological, and biometric factors such as precipitation, radiation, temperature, species type, leaf area, and extent and structure of forest ecosystems. Over the past two centuries, forest coverage and forest structures have been impacted globally by anthropogenic activities, for example, forest harvesting, and conversion of forested landscapes for plantations and urbanization. In addition, since the industrial revolution, climate change has resulted in profound impacts on forest ecosystems due to higher carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration or CO2 fertilization, warmer temperatures, changes in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events and natural disturbances. As a result, hydrological processes in forested watersheds have been altered by these natural and anthropogenic factors and these changes are expected to accelerate due to future changing climatic conditions. Hence, understanding how various environmental, physiological, and physical drivers interactively influence hydrological and biogeochemical processes in forest ecosystems is critical for sustainable water supply in forested watersheds. About 21% of the global population depends on water sources that originate in forested catchments where forest coverage larger than 30%. Furthermore, there are knowledge gaps in our understanding of the mechanism of hydrological and hydrochemical cycles in forested watersheds. This Special Issue addresses these gaps in our knowledge and includes twelve papers in the following three major research themes in forest watershed areas.

The book aims to address the interdisciplinary targets of watershed management in mountain regions based on the current knowledge of the subject. The focus of the book is particularly on monitoring, research, and modelling the interactions between the climate, water cycle, and aquatic ecosystem. The issues of watershed management in mountain regions in different parts of Europe, Africa, America and Asia have been the central theme of the book, which is basically divided into five sections: Institutional aspects in control of mountain regions; Stream-flow processes in mountain catchments; Water chemistry and biota in mountain streams and lakes; Effects of forest practices and climate change on hydrological phenomena; and Soil conservation and control of floods and landslides. The contributions have been peer-reviewed and the interdisciplinary team of authors includes experts from the specialised areas of geography, hydrology, chemistry, biology, forestry, ecology, economy and sociology. The practical applications and management strategies mentioned in the book, deal with the integrated resource management approach, based on the compromise between the development, conservation/ protection of the nature. Finally, the socio-economic and cultural aspects, and ecosystem prevalent in a mountain catchment are discussed in detail.

The current synthesis is a review of research examining the effects of large-scale mountain pine beetle (MPB)-related disturbance conducted predominantly over the past five years. The emphasis is on research that explicitly examines the impact of beetle kill (or biotic disturbance in general) and the cumulative effects of large scale salvage harvesting operations in response to beetle kill. In general, forest disturbance has been found to increase snow accumulation and melt, reduce interception loss and evaporation, and increase runoff and stream flow.--Document.

This document provides a synthesis of recently completed studies to assess the ecological consequences of forest management after attack by mountain pine beetle or other large-scale disturbances. Studies are assessed for their contributions to gaps in knowledge previously identified in the Mountain Pine Beetle Initiative Working Paper "Evaluating effects of large scale salvage logging for mountain pine beetle on terrestrial and aquatic vertebrates," which was published in 2004. This report focuses on studies developed through the federal Mountain Pine Beetle Initiative, the federal Mountain Pine Beetle Program, and the complementary BC Forest Science Program. Relevant information from other jurisdictions is sometimes included to augment those studies. Topics examined are: the impacts of beetle kill and salvage operations on habitat attributes; the impacts of beetle kill and salvage operations on attendant processes, such as snag fall rates, light interception, and snow accumulation; and the wildlife response to large-scale beetle outbreaks and management strategies. For each of these three topics, we provide a summary of: research to date; pertinent findings to date; and gaps in research.

The epicentre of the mountain pine beetle (MPB) outbreak at this time is in the Fraser River drainage basin in British Columbia. Due to the infestation's area and associated salvage harvest options, the potential exists for widespread and significant local and regional hydrologic impacts within the basin. The main objective of this paper is to estimate impacts from land-cover change on average peak flows for all third-order (1:50,000) watersheds in British Columbia because peak flows are a major concern for flood hazard, erosion and sedimentation impacts, and other hydrologic consequences. The goal is to provide a model that can be applied to all watersheds and, in particular, ungauged basins throughout the province.--Includes text from document and publisher's website.