Pacific Southwest

Title: Effects of Timber Harvest on Fog Drip and Streamflow, Caspar Creek Experimental Watersheds, Mendocino County, California

Author: Keppeler, Elizabeth

Date: 2007

Source: In: Standiford, Richard B.; Giusti, Gregory A.; Valachovic, Yana; Zielinski, William J.; Furniss, Michael J., technical editors. 2007. Proceedings of the redwood region forest science symposium: What does the future hold? Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-194. Albany, CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; p. 85-94

Station ID: GTR-PSW-194

Description: Within the second-growth redwood forest of the Caspar Creek watershed, fog drip was measured in 1998 at 12 sites where heavy fog drip was expected. The following year, two one-ha plots were each instrumented with six randomly sited 1.35 m² fog-drip collectors and one additional collector in a nearby clearcut. Fog-drip totals were highly variable, ranging from zero to 18 mm per event (mean = eight mm) and 0.2 to 99 mm (mean = 39 mm) during the 1999 season. Within the one-ha plots, fog drip under the canopy was only three mm greater than accumulations in the clearcut at one site and not significantly different at the other. Given the annual average precipitation of 1170 mm, fog drip does not appear to strongly influence groundwater recharge and baseflow processes at Caspar Creek. These results are consistent with streamflow measurements. From 1971 to 1973, 65 percent of the timber volume in the South Fork was selectively cut, and from 1985 to 1992, 50 percent of the North Fork basin was clearcut. Annual water yield and summer flows increased following both timber harvests, indicating that the effects of reduced rainfall interception and transpiration exceed that from the loss of fog drip.

Keywords: fog drip, hydrologic processes, streamflow, timber harvest

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Citation

Keppeler, Elizabeth  2007.  Effects of Timber Harvest on Fog Drip and Streamflow, Caspar Creek Experimental Watersheds, Mendocino County, California.   In: Standiford, Richard B.; Giusti, Gregory A.; Valachovic, Yana; Zielinski, William J.; Furniss, Michael J., technical editors. 2007. Proceedings of the redwood region forest science symposium: What does the future hold? Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-194. Albany, CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; p. 85-94 .