Pacific Southwest

Title: Logging effects on soil moisture losses

Author: "Ziemer, Robert R."

Date: 1978

Source: "Ph.D. dissertation, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, Colorado. 132 p."

Description: "Abstract - The depletion of soil moisture within the surface 15 feet by an isolated mature sugar pine and an adjacent uncut forest in the California Sierra Nevada was measured by the neutron method every 2 weeks for 5 consecutive summers. Soil moisture recharge was measured periodically during the intervening winters. Groundwater fluctuations within the surface 50 feet were continuously recorded during the same period. Each fall, a wetting front progressed from the soil surface, eventually recharging the entire soil profile to ""field capacity"". During the recharge period, although the top portion of the soil was at ""field capacity"", the trees continued to deplete moisture from the drier soil below the wetting front into early winter. Groundwater levels began to rise within days after rainfall, whereas weeks or months were required for the wetting front to progress through the unsaturated zone above the water table. Soil moisture depletion by the isolated tree was maximum at a depth of 8 to 13 feet and extended about 15 feet away from the tree. The influence of the tree on soil moisture depletion extended to a depth of about 18 feet and to a distance of about 40 feet. An excellent linear relationship was found between the quantity of soil moisture depleted by the tree at the end of the summer and distance from the tree. The isolated tree used between 2200 and 2600 cubic feet more soil moisture than a bare portion of the plot outside of the influence of the tree."

Keywords: "PSW4351, soil moisture, logging effects, measurement, precipitation"

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Citation

"Ziemer, Robert R."  1978.  Logging effects on soil moisture losses.   "Ph.D. dissertation, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, Colorado. 132 p.".