Hydrologic Recovery Research Articles

Wetland hydrological change and recovery across three decades of shifting groundwater management

Groundwater extraction compromises the function of groundwater-dependent ecosystems, such as freshwater wetlands. Identifying whether groundwater conservation restores wetland hydrology is a first step toward rehabilitating impaired wetlands. In the Tampa Bay region of Florida (U.S.), groundwater extraction rates have been declining since 1998, partly in response to desiccation of wetlands and waterbodies. This study uses monthly water-level data from 152 depressional wetlands over 28 years (1991–2018) to identify trends in wetland inundation, determine whether those trends vary among wetlands historically exposed to different rates of groundwater extraction, and describe relationships between the timing and extent of cutbacks in groundwater extraction and the timing and extent of changes in wetland inundation. Many wetlands (57 %) exhibited increased inundation in response to cutbacks in groundwater extraction, indicating that water conservation measures are inducing recovery. Further, increased inundation began in most wetlands immediately upon, or within two years of, the time extraction cutbacks occurred, although some recovering wetlands exhibited longer lags. An additional 26 % of wetlands had steady-state water levels with inundation similar to that of reference wetlands, potentially revealing a population of wetlands hydrologically unimpaired by nearby groundwater extraction. Another subset of wetlands (14 %) with steady-state water depths exhibited increasing deviations from basin-full water levels, suggesting subsidence of the wetland basin. Active intervention beyond cutbacks in groundwater extraction may be necessary to restore this subset, whereas passive restoration (reducing extraction) appears adequate for the majority of impacted wetlands. Rising water levels may amplify surface-water connections among wetlands, with ecological and biogeochemical consequences both for individual wetlands and for the whole wetlandscape. As a host of human activities continue to rely on groundwater extraction, this study demonstrates the potential for, as well as variability in, hydrological recovery across a wetland-rich, low-relief landscape following the enactment of water conservation policies.

Estimating changes in streamflow attributable to wildfire in multiple watersheds using a semi‐distributed watershed model

AbstractMore than half of water supply in the western United States is sourced from forested lands that are increasingly under wildfire risk. Studies have begun to isolate the effects of wildfire on streamflow, but they have typically used coarse temporal resolutions that cannot account for the numerous, interconnected watershed processes that control the responses to rainfall events. In this study, we employed a method to isolate fine‐scale (daily) effects of fire. Wildfire effects were estimated as the difference between measured post‐fire streamflow and unburned scenarios of post‐fire streamflow simulated by a hydrologic model calibrated to pre‐fire conditions. The method was applied to track hydrologic recovery after wildfires in six burned watersheds across the western United States: North Eagle Creek, NM (2012 Little Bear Fire), Lopez Creek, CA (1985 Las Pilitas Fire), City Creek, Devil Canyon Creek, East Twin Creek, and Plunge Creek, CA (2003 Old Fire). All six watersheds experienced prolonged increases of post‐fire streamflow, with the most consistent changes occurring during periods of low streamflow. Following 6 years of increased streamflow, Lopez Creek experienced 6 years of reduced streamflow before returning to the pre‐fire hydrologic regime. North Eagle Creek and the four watersheds affected by the Old Fire continued to have elevated streamflow 9 and 18 years post‐fire, respectively, without returning to the pre‐fire hydrologic regime.

Investigating hydrological recovery in regenerating coniferous stands in snow‐dominated watersheds using simultaneous localization and mapping‐enabled mobile terrestrial LiDAR

AbstractThe return of snow accumulation and ablation processes in regenerating forests to pre‐disturbance conditions, collectively referred to as hydrological recovery, has been investigated in past decades through manual snow surveys in adjacent open, juvenile, and mature stands. The outcomes of such studies provide a general understanding of hydrological recovery but lack transferability to areas where stand structure and terrain conditions differ from the reference sites. The application of mobile terrestrial LiDAR to investigate peak snow water equivalent (SWE) and ablation rates beneath regenerating trees in a space‐for‐time substitution study design provides new insights on the process of hydrological recovery in snowmelt forests of British Columbia, Canada. Outcomes of this study better quantify the influence of tree growth on peak SWE and ablation rate at both the tree and stand level for north aspect mixed conifer stands. Recovery of these two processes differ with recovery of Peak SWE beginning when the trees in a stand reach 3 m in height and recovery of ablation rates beginning once trees reach 5 m in height. Additionally, the process of negative ablation recovery in early juvenile stands reported in previous studies is herein clearly observed, providing an improved understanding of forest canopy effects on hydrological recovery in juvenile stands. The methods used in this study, which are internationally applicable, increase transferability of outcomes to stands where canopy characteristics (i.e., height, crown cover, and heterogeneity) are not represented in reference sites.

Storm Surges and Sea Level Rise Cluster Hydrological Variables Across a Coastal Forest Bordering a Salt Marsh

AbstractSea level rise and storm surges drive coastal forest retreat and salt marsh expansion. Both salinization and flooding control ecological zonation and ecosystem transition in coastal areas. Hydrological variables, if coupled with ecological surveys, can explain the different stages of coastal forest retreat and marsh encroachment. In this research, long‐term data of a host of hydrological variables collected along transects from marsh to inner forest were analyzed. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was used to identify the primary hydrological variables responsible for the forest‐marsh gradient and their seasonal patterns. Water content (WC) in the soil (WC) and groundwater electrical conductivity (EC) were found to be the main variables responsible for the hydrological differences among the sites. Higher values of WC and EC were found in the low‐forest area near the salt marsh, with hydrological differences between forest levels reflected in ecological community structure. In particular, some sites were characterized by high EC while others by high WC values, suggesting significant spatial variations within hundreds of meters. The forested area, relatively flat in elevation, was characterized by limited hydraulic gradients and consequently lateral discharges. These characteristics made the role of groundwater level negligible in driving the hydrological clustering. Seasonal LDA data suggest that the sites are hydrologically different during winter (higher distance among clusters of variables) and similar during summer (low distance among clusters). In the study area, higher rainfall occurs during summer, decreasing groundwater EC in areas characterized by low canopy cover (dying forest). Rainfall moved low forest sites closer to the pristine high forest in the LDA analysis. During storm surge events, the distance between clusters decreased, indicating uniform salinization and flooding across the forest. Therefore, we conclude that ecological zonation in a coastal forest is reflected in seasonal hydrological differences in the absence of storm surges. Storm surges do not produce contrasting hydrological conditions and might not be responsible for ecological differences in the short‐term. On the contrary, differences in hydrological recovery are responsible for forest zonation. An additional analysis carried out using a binary Marsh‐Healthy forest LDA classifier indicates when each site switches from a forest hydrological state to a salt‐marsh hydrological state. Our results are useful for long‐term predictions of the ecological evolution of the forest–salt marsh ecotone.

Process‐Based Quantification of the Role of Wildfire in Shaping Flood Frequency

AbstractModerate to high severity wildfire can abruptly alter watershed properties and enhance extreme hydrologic responses such as debris flows and floods. The compounding effects of wildfire on flood hazard, represented here via flood frequency analysis (FFA; e.g., 100‐year flood) are of growing importance. Standard statistical FFA approaches are ill‐suited to examining this issue because wildfire‐affected flood peak observations are limited in number and violate the assumption of independent and identically distributed events. Here, we developed a process‐based FFA framework that integrates a stochastic rainfall generator, wildfire simulation, inverse modeling, and a physics‐based hydrological model to directly simulate the impacts of wildfire on FFA. We applied this framework in the upper Arroyo Seco watershed in Southern California, which experienced Moderate to high burn during the 2009 Station Fire. An FFA analysis, performed with simulated peak flows from the first year since fire demonstrates the 100‐year flood can be three times larger than simulations that only consider peak flows in non‐fire‐affected years. On the other hand, coupling process‐based FFA with stochastically simulated wildfire events and watershed's time‐varying hydrologic recovery yields “fire continuum FFA”, a concept introduced here for the first time. Fire continuum FFA accounts for multiple wildfires within very long synthetic time series. Variability in upper tail flood peaks is substantially higher in fire continuum results as compared with pre‐wildfire FFA. This result highlights the importance of wildfire inter‐arrival time and post‐wildfire recovery processes, both of which are expected to change as a result of climatic change and evolving fire management strategies.

Effects of forest disturbance on water yield and peak flow in low‐relief glaciated catchments assessed with Bayesian parameter estimation

AbstractEmpirical assessment of how forest disturbance affects streamflow has been traditionally limited to small, experimental catchments. However, larger catchments where landscape management occurs have emergent drivers of streamflow at scale, and thus may exhibit novel responses to land cover disturbance. We used statistical models of water yield and annual maximum peak streamflow for multiple large (> 50 km2) forested catchments in the low‐relief glaciated region of central North America to investigate how forest disturbance and climatic variability affect water yield and peak flows in similar landscapes. We used linear models, linear mixed effects models, and probabilistic flood‐frequency analysis with Bayesian parameter estimation in two case studies. These included: (1) a wildfire that burned ~30% of the 650 km2 wilderness Upper Kawishiwi catchment, and (2) 11 catchments within the St. Louis River Basin ranging from 56 to 8880 km2 with a patchwork disturbance regime wherein ~0.25% to 1% of the catchment is harvested or converted to non‐forest land use each year. We also assessed the most likely hydrological recovery year after forest disturbance, and the relative importance of stationary and nonstationary drivers of streamflow. We found forest disturbance correlated with declines in water yield for low‐level disturbance regimes in some catchments, but that water yield increased in response to the large‐scale wildfire. Positive and negative associations of forest disturbance with peak flows were observed. Hydrologic recovery time ranged from 5 to 13 years for water yield and peak flows following disturbance. Despite these effects of forest disturbance on streamflow, effects of climatic variability and stationary catchment size factors were more prominent streamflow drivers. Basins larger than ~50 km2 in low‐relief glaciated regions can be impacted by forest cover change even on <30% of basin area, but climatic variability and catchment spatial scale has a larger effect than forest disturbance.

Synergistic effects of precipitation and groundwater extraction on freshwater wetland inundation

Wetlands provide essential ecosystem services, including nutrient cycling, flood protection, and biodiversity support, that are sensitive to changes in wetland hydrology. Wetland hydrological inputs come from precipitation, groundwater discharge, and surface run-off. Changes to these inputs via climate variation, groundwater extraction, and land development may alter the timing and magnitude of wetland inundation. Here, we use a long-term (14-year) comparative study of 152 depressional wetlands in west-central Florida to identify sources of variation in wetland inundation during two key time periods, 2005–2009 and 2010–2018. These time periods are separated by the enactment of water conservation policies in 2009, which included regional reductions in groundwater extraction. We investigated the response of wetland inundation to the interactive effects of precipitation, groundwater extraction, surrounding land development, basin geomorphology, and wetland vegetation class. Results show that water levels were lower and hydroperiods were shorter in wetlands of all vegetation classes during the first (2005–2009) time period, which corresponded with low rainfall conditions and high rates of groundwater extraction. Under water conservation policies enacted in the second (2010–2018) time period, median wetland water depths increased 1.35 m and median hydroperiods increased from 46 % to 83 %. Water-level variation was additionally less sensitive to groundwater extraction. The increase in inundation differed among vegetation classes with some wetlands not displaying signs of hydrological recovery. After accounting for effects of several explanatory factors, inundation still varied considerably among wetlands, suggesting a diversity of hydrological regimes, and thus ecological function, among individual wetlands across the landscape. Policies seeking to balance human water demand with the preservation of depressional wetlands would benefit by recognizing the heightened sensitivity of wetland inundation to groundwater extraction during periods of low precipitation.

Evaluating the Influence of the Forestry Reclamation Approach on Throughfall Quantity in Eastern Kentucky

Reclamation Highlights: Rapid growth and canopy closure by conifers resulted in higher canopy interception rates than those observed in deciduous trees, both on reforested mine sites and in natural forests. Results from this study show the importance of species survival rates on interception and that low survival rates could negatively impact, or at least delay, the hydrologic recovery of a reclaimed area and potentially threaten landscape stability. Use of the forestry reclamation approach can help restore hydrologic function on reclaimed surface mines.

Hydrologic recovery after wildfire: A framework of approaches, metrics, criteria, trajectories, and timescales

Abstract Deviations in hydrologic processes due to wildfire can alter streamflows across the hydrograph, spanning peak flows to low flows. Fire-enhanced changes in hydrologic processes, including infiltration, interception, and evapotranspiration, and the resulting streamflow responses can affect water supplies, through effects on the quantity, quality, and timing of water availability. Post-fire shifts in hydrologic processes can also alter the timing and magnitude of floods and debris flows. The duration of hydrologic deviations from a pre-fire condition or function, sometimes termed hydrologic recovery, is a critical concern for land, water, and emergency managers. We reviewed and summarized terminology and approaches for defining and assessing hydrologic recovery after wildfire, focusing on statistical and functional definitions. We critically examined advantages and drawbacks of current recovery assessment methods, outline challenges to determining recovery, and call attention to selected opportunities for advancement of post-fire hydrologic recovery assessment. Selected challenges included hydroclimatic variability, post-fire land management, and spatial and temporal variability. The most promising opportunities for advancing assessment of hydrologic recovery include: (1) combining statistical and functional recovery approaches, (2) using a greater diversity of post-fire observations complemented with hydrologic modeling, and (3) defining optimal assemblages of recovery metrics and criteria for common hydrologic concerns and regions.

Large increases of multi-year droughts in north-western Europe in a warmer climate

Three consecutive dry summers in western Europe (2018–2019–2020) had widespread negative impacts on society and ecosystems, and started societal debate on (changing) drought vulnerability and adaptation measures. We investigate the occurrence of multi-year droughts in the Rhine basin, with a focus on event probability in the present and in future warmer climates. Additionally, we investigate the temporally compounding physical drivers of multi-year drought events. A combination of multiple reanalysis datasets and multi-model large ensemble climate model simulations was used to provide a robust analysis of the statistics and physical processes of these rare events. We identify two types of multi-year drought events (consecutive meteorological summer droughts and long-duration hydrological droughts), and show that these occur on average about twice in a 30 year period in the present climate, though natural variability is large (zero to five events can occur in a single 30 year period). Projected decreases in summer precipitation and increases in atmospheric evaporative demand, lead to a doubling of event probability at 1 ^circC additional global warming relative to present-day and an increase in the average length of events. Consecutive meteorological summer droughts are forced by two, seemingly independent, summers of lower than normal precipitation and higher than normal evaporative demand. The soil moisture response to this temporally compound meteorological forcing has a clear multi-year imprint, resulting in a relatively larger reduction of soil moisture content in the second year of drought, and potentially more severe drought impacts. Long-duration hydrological droughts start with a severe summer drought followed by lingering meteorologically dry conditions. This limits and slows down the hydrological recovery of soil moisture content, leading to long-lasting drought conditions. This initial exploration provides avenues for further investigation of multi-year drought hazard and vulnerability in the region, which is advised given the projected trends and vulnerability of society and ecosystems.

A novel Budyko-based approach to quantify post-forest-fire streamflow response and recovery timescales

Recent increases in the incidences of wildfires have necessitated the development of methodologies to quantify the effect of these fires on streamflows. Climate variability has been cited as a major challenge in revealing the true contribution of disturbance to streamflow changes. To address this, we developed an annual Budyko “decomposition” method for (1) statistical change detection of hydrologic signatures post-fire, (2) separating climate-driven and fire-driven changes in streamflow, and (3) estimating hydrologic recovery timescales after fire. We demonstrate the use of this methodology for 17 watersheds in Southern California with high interannual variability in precipitation. We show that while traditional metrics like changes in flow or runoff ratio might not detect a disturbance effect due to confounding climate signals, the Budyko framework can be used successfully for statistical change detection. The Budyko approach was also found to be robust in detecting changes in 5 highly burned catchments (>40% burned area ratio), while changes in less burned (2) and unburned catchments (10) were insignificant. We further used the Budyko approach to quantify the contribution of fire-driven versus climate driven changes in streamflow and found that fire contributed to an average increase in streamflow on the order of 80 mm yr−1, though the effect varied greatly between years. Finally, we estimated hydrologic recovery timescales that varied between 5 and 45 years for four burned catchments. We found a significant linear relationship between recovery time and burned area at medium and high severity for our study catchments, with about 4 years of recovery time per 10% of the watershed burned.

Approaching four decades of forest watershed research at Upper Penticton Creek, British Columbia: A synthesis

AbstractOver the past 35 years, the Upper Penticton Creek (UPC) Watershed Experiment has supported forest hydrology research in south‐central British Columbia (BC), Canada. This paper provides a synthesis of research results, highlights the challenges facing UPC and identifies new research directions. Clearcutting approximately 50% of two small, snow‐dominated (Dfb Koppen classification) watersheds advanced the timing of snowmelt‐generated high flows and decreased late‐summer low flows, relative to predictions based on pre‐treatment regressions. Changes in high flows did not have a significant effect on stream channels due to low stream power, coarse substrate, and limited riparian disturbance. Changes in summer low flows reduced modelled useable fish habitat by 20%–50%. Evaporation averaged 52% of the annual precipitation in the mature forest, was reduced to 30% in a clearcut, and recovered to 40% and 47% in a 10 and 25 year‐old stand, respectively. Groundwater recharge to the bedrock was estimated at 19% of annual precipitation, indicating that, even with the large uncertainty associated with this estimate, deep groundwater should not be ignored in the water balance. Suspended sediment, turbidity, and colour increased post‐logging; however, chemical surface water quality did not change. Aquatic community structure changed post‐logging; and although this affected the processing of organic matter, the effects on habitat quality were considered minimal. The information gained at UPC has supported provincial policies, management guidelines, forest stewardship plans and watershed risk assessments. The undisturbed control watershed, re‐growing treatment watersheds and ongoing long‐term hydrometric monitoring continue to provide opportunities for future research addressing issues such as the effects of young forests on streamflow and hydrologic recovery, and the influence of climate change on the hydrologic regime.

The timing and magnitude of changes to Hortonian overland flow at the watershed scale during the post‐fire recovery process

AbstractExtreme hydrologic responses following wildfires can lead to floods and debris flows with costly economic and societal impacts. Process‐based hydrologic and geomorphic models used to predict the downstream impacts of wildfire must account for temporal changes in hydrologic parameters related to the generation and subsequent routing of infiltration‐excess overland flow across the landscape. However, we lack quantitative relationships showing how parameters change with time‐since‐burning, particularly at the watershed scale. To assess variations in best‐fit hydrologic parameters with time, we used the KINEROS2 hydrological model to explore temporal changes in hillslope saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksh) and channel hydraulic roughness (nc) following a wildfire in the upper Arroyo Seco watershed (41.5 km2), which burned during the 2009 Station fire in the San Gabriel Mountains, California, USA. This study explored runoff‐producing storms between 2008 and 2014 to infer watershed hydraulic properties by calibrating the model to observations at the watershed outlet. Modelling indicates Ksh is lowest in the first year following the fire and then increases at an average rate of approximately 4.2 mm/h/year during the first 5 years of recovery. The estimated values for Ksh in the first year following the fire are similar to those obtained in previous studies on smaller watersheds (<1.5 km2) following the Station fire, suggesting hydrologic changes detected here can be applied to lower‐order watersheds. Hydraulic roughness, nc, was lowest in the first year following the fire, but increased by a factor of 2 after 1 year of recovery. Post‐fire observations suggest changes in nc are due to changes in grain roughness and vegetation in channels. These results provide quantitative constraints on the magnitude of fire‐induced hydrologic changes following severe wildfires in chaparral‐dominated ecosystems as well as the timing of hydrologic recovery.

Fifty years of runoff response to conversion of old‐growth forest to planted forest in the H. J. Andrews Forest, Oregon, USA

AbstractLong‐term watershed experiments provide the opportunity to understand forest hydrology responses to past logging, road construction, forest regrowth, and their interactions with climate and geomorphic processes such as road‐related landslides. We examined a 50‐year record from paired‐watershed experiments in the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest, Oregon, USA in which 125 to 450‐year‐old conifer forests were harvested in the 1960s and 1970s and converted to planted conifer forests. We evaluated how quickflow and delayed flow for 1222 events in treated and reference watersheds changed by season after clearcutting and road construction, including 50 years of growth of planted forest, major floods, and multi‐decade reductions in snowpack. Quickflow runoff early in the water year (fall) increased by up to +99% in the first decade, declining to below pre‐harvest levels (−1% to −15%) by the third to fifth decade after clearcutting. Fall delayed flow responded more dramatically than quickflow and fell below pre‐treatment levels in all watersheds by the fifth decade, consistent with increased transpiration in the planted forests. Quickflow increased less (+12% to 70%) during the winter and spring but remained higher than pre‐treatment levels throughout the fourth or fifth decade, potentially impacted by post‐harvest burning, roads, and landslides. Quickflow remained high throughout the 50‐year period of study, and much higher than delayed flow in the last two decades in a watershed in which road‐related changes in flow routing and debris flows after the flood of record increased network connectivity. A long‐term decline in regional snowpack was not clearly associated with responses of treated vs. reference watersheds. Hydrologic processes altered by harvest of old‐growth conifer forest more than 50 years ago (transpiration, interception, snowmelt, and flow routing) continued to modify streamflow, with no clear evidence of hydrologic recovery. These findings underscore the importance of continued long‐term watershed experiments.

Interannual evolution of hydrosedimentary connectivity induced by forest cover change in a snow‐dominated mountainous catchment

AbstractHydrosedimentary connectivity is a key concept referring to the potential fluxes of water and sediment moving throughout a catchment. In forested catchments, these fluxes are prone to alterations caused by anthropogenic and natural disturbances. In this study, we modelled the interannual spatiotemporal evolution of hydrosedimentary connectivity influenced by forest cover change over the last four decades in the Mont‐Louis catchment, a medium snow‐dominated mountainous catchment in eastern Canada, which had 62% of its total surface affected by forest disturbances (mainly logging, but also wildfires and diseases) between 1979 and 2017. Using a geomorphometric index of connectivity (IC) and a historical forest cover database, we produced one IC map per year that considered anthropogenic and natural disturbances affecting the forest cover of the studied catchment. To account for vegetation recovery, forest disturbances were weighted with local hydrological recovery rates. Over the four decades, the mean IC of the Mont‐Louis catchment dramatically increased by 35% in response to different types of disturbances. The spatial evolution of IC over the whole catchment and at the sub‐catchment scale revealed that disturbance location has a strong influence on hydrosedimentary connectivity to the main channel. Our results also highlight the sharp contrast between IC computed from topography‐based impedance to those computed from vegetation‐based impedance. Forest disturbances appear to connect hillslopes with the hydrological network by producing pathways for sediment and water. Finally, the proposed reproducible framework could be useful for predicting the potential impact of harvesting and preventing damage to fish habitat and sensitive river reaches.

How to Choose a Hydrological Recovery Mode for Degraded Semiarid Wetland in China? A Case Study on Restoration of Phragmites australis Saline-Alkaline Wetland

Hydrological recovery is the basis for restoring the structure and function of wetlands in semiarid and arid areas of China. Selecting an appropriate hydrological recovery mode may be helpful for improving the effectiveness of wetland restoration. We conducted pot experiments to study the effects of the flooding frequency, duration, depth, and occurrence time on the height, biomass, ion contents, and photosynthetic physiology of Phragmites australis in degraded saline–alkaline marsh in the West Songnen Plain, China. At the end of the growing season, we found that the biomass, photosynthetic parameters, and water use efficiency (WUE) of the leaves increased, whereas the Na+ concentration decreased, and the K+ content remained unchanged under an increased flooding frequency treatment. As the flooding depth increased, the plant height increased, but there were no differences in the photosynthetic parameters, biomass, and WUE under flooding at 5 cm and 10 cm. Under different flooding duration treatments, the plant height and biomass were greater, but the photosynthetic parameters and Na+ and K+ contents were lower under a flooding duration of three months. The flooding occurrence time had little effect on the growth of P. australis. Our results indicate that the flooding frequency and duration had greater effects than the flooding depth and occurrence time in the hydrological recovery model for P. australis restoration. The biomass accumulated by P. australis was related to lower Na+ contents and the maintenance of a high K+/Na+ contents, and WUE increased by adjusting photosynthesis under a moderate flooding frequency and duration. These results have important implications for the restoration of degraded semiarid wetlands with man-made channel systems in conditions with limited freshwater resources.

Wetland Vegetation Response to Groundwater Pumping and Hydrologic Recovery

An investigation of wetland vegetation response to groundwater alteration was conducted at the J.B. Starkey Wilderness Park, a large municipal wellfield in the area of west Florida, USA. Decades of historic groundwater withdrawal had created a gradient of impacted wetlands on the wellfield, after which time the groundwater pumping rates were reduced. Nineteen cypress dome wetlands were grouped, based on their hydrologic histories, as either most-altered (least inundation), marginally-altered (intermediate inundation), or least-altered (near-normal inundation). Annual species–level monitoring data were used to evaluate understory plant community response to the hydrologic recovery that resulted from reduced groundwater pumping. Species richness, cover, prevalence index (PI), and species importance percentages were assessed during pre- (2005–2007) and post- (2012–2014) hydrologic recovery periods. The vegetation in marginally- and most-altered wetlands responded to hydrologic recovery with increased species richness and lower PI values (i.e., greater hydrophytic character). However, species importance percentages indicated greater variation in the recovery of most-altered wetlands, where species composition often remained different from least-altered wetlands. Although reductions in groundwater pumping caused sufficient passive hydrologic recovery to elicit a vegetation response, further reductions and/or more time may be needed before the vegetation of some altered wetlands can become comparable to that of least-impacted wetlands.

Effects of Forest Harvesting on Warm-Season Low Flows in the Pacific Northwest: A Review

Paired-catchment studies conducted on small (< 10 km2) rain-dominated catchments revealed that forest harvesting resulted in a period of increased warm-season low flows ranging from less than five years to more than two decades, consistent with the results of stand-level studies and process considerations. Of the five paired-catchment studies in snow-dominated regions, none revealed a statistically significant change in warm-season low flows in the first decade following harvest, although two exhibited non-significant higher flows in August and September and one had lower flows. Two studies, one of rain-dominated catchments and one of snow-dominated catchments, found that summer low flows became more severe (i.e., lower) about two decades or so following harvest. These longer-term results indicate that indices such as equivalent clearcut area, as currently calculated using monotonic recovery curves, may not accurately reflect the nature of post-harvest changes in low flows. Studies focussed on medium to large catchments (tens to thousands of km2 in area) found either no statistically significant relations between warm-season low flows and forest disturbance, or inconsistent responses. Attempts to synthesize existing studies are hampered by the lack of a common low-flow metric among studies, as well as detailed information on post-harvest vegetation changes. Further fieldresearch and process-based modelling is required to help elucidate the underlying processes leading to the results from these paired-catchment studies and to enhance the ability to predict streamflow responses to forest harvesting, especially in the context of a changing climate.
 KEYWORDS: streamflow; forestry; low flows; fish habitat; hydrologic recovery

Lag in Hydrologic Recovery Following Extreme Meteorological Drought Events: Implications for Ecological Water Requirements

Hydrological regimes, being strongly impacted by climate change, play a vital role in maintaining the integrity of aquatic river habitats. We investigated lag in hydrologic recovery following extreme meteorological drought events, and we also discussed its implications in the assessment of ecological environment flow. We used monthly anomalies of three specific hydrometeorological variables (precipitation, streamflow, and baseflow) to identify drought, while we used the Chapman–Maxwell method (the CM filter) with recession constant calculated from Automatic Baseflow Identification Technique (ABIT) to separate baseflow. Results showed that: (i) Compared to the default recession parameter (α = 0.925), the CM filter with the ABIT estimate (α = 0.984) separated baseflow more accurately. (ii) Hydrological drought, resulting from meteorological drought, reflected the duration and intensity of meteorological drought; namely, longer meteorological drought periods resulted in longer hydrological drought periods. Interestingly, the time lag in streamflow and baseflow indicated that aquatic ecosystem habitat recovery also lagged behind meteorological drought. (iii) Assessing environmental flow by quantifying drought provided greater detail on hydrological regimes compared to abrupt changes, such as the increased hydrological periods and the different environment flows obtained. Taken together, our results indicated that the hydrological response in streamflow and baseflow (e.g., the time lag and the precipitation recovery rate (Pr)) played a vital role in the assessment of environmental flow.

Long‐term hydrologic recovery after wildfire and post‐fire forest management in the interior Pacific Northwest

AbstractElevated wildfire activity in many regions in recent decades has increased concerns about the short‐ and long‐term effects on water quantity, quality, and aquatic ecosystem health. Often, loss of canopy interception and transpiration, along with changes in soil structural properties, leads to elevated total annual water yields, peak flows, and low flows. Post‐fire land management treatments are often used to promote forest regeneration and mitigate effects to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. However, few studies have investigated the longer‐term effects of either wildfire or post‐fire land management on catchment hydrology. Our objectives were to quantify and compare the short‐ and longer‐term effects of both wildfire and post‐fire forest management treatments on annual discharge, peak flows, low flows, and evapotranspiration (AET). We analyzed ten years of pre‐fire data, along with post‐fire data from 1 to 7 and 35 to 41 years after wildfire burned three experimental catchments in the Entiat Experimental Forest (EEF) in the Pacific Northwest, USA. After the fire, two of the catchments were salvage logged, aerially seeded, and fertilized, while the third catchment remained as a burned reference. We observed increases in annual discharge (150–202%), peak flows (234–283%), and low flows (42–81%), along with decreases in AET (34–45%), across all three study catchments in the first seven year period after the EEF wildfire. Comparatively, annual discharge, peak flows, lows flows, and AET had returned to pre‐fire levels 35–41 years after the EEF fire in the two salvage logged and seeded catchments. Surprisingly, in the catchment that was burned but not actively managed, the annual discharge and runoff ratios remained elevated, while AET remained lower, during the period 35–41 years after the EEF fire. We posit that differences in long‐term hydrologic recovery across catchments were driven by delayed vegetation recovery in the unmanaged catchment. Our study demonstrates that post‐fire land management decisions have the potential to produce meaningful differences in the long‐term recovery of catchment‐scale ecohydrologic processes and streamflow.