Exploring connections between landscapes and streams.
| Authors: | Noreen Parks |
| Year: | 2009 |
| Type: | Science Findings |
| Station: | Pacific Northwest Research Station |
| Source: | Science Findings 119. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 5 p. |
Abstract
New technology has given scientists the means to probe the hidden world of belowground hydrology. Steve Wondzell with the Pacific Northwest Research Station and his colleagues conducted several experiments in Montana’s Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest and Oregon’s H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest to determine which factors control the timing and location of water inputs from hillslopes to streams, the movement of water down the stream channel, and the consequences of these processes on watershed outputs. They found that the configuration of uplands draining into a watershed strongly affects the quantities of water delivered to a stream. In general, water from upper hillslopes reached the stream only during abundant precipitation and snow melting, except in places where the landscape was deeply incised and consistently hydrologically linked to the channel. These patterns of connectivity explain the seasonal patterns of runoff observed in individual watersheds.
Based on science by Steve Wondzell, Kelsey Jensco, and Rob Payn