Despite the importance of rain and snowmelt in causing peakflows in the Pacific
Northwest, the interactive effects of a snowpack and watershed physiography on
streamflow are largely undocumented. This study investigated the influence of soil and
snowpack moisture on peakflow hydrograph shape in three small (< 60 ha) control sub-watersheds...
This study assessed how logging-access roads may have contributed to
observed historical increases in peak discharges associated with small and large
logged basins in the western Cascades of Oregon. The study was conducted on
the Lookout Creek (62km²) and the upper Blue River (118km²) basins. Potential
road effects on hydrology...
Forest roads constructed in steep mountain landscapes have been associated with a
number of effects on hydrologic and geomorphic processes. This research examined the
effects of forest roads on the flow of water and sediment in drainage basins in the Cascade
range of western Oregon. A study conducted at the...
As a result of a warming climate, subsequent declining snowpack, and a century of fire suppression, forest fires are increasing across the western United States. However, we still do not fully understand how forest fire effects snowpack energy balance, nor the volume and availability of snow melt and associated water...
Rainfall interception is a primary control over the moisture input to a forested ecosystem through the partitioning of precipitation into throughfall, stemflow, and an evaporated component (i.e. the interception loss). Rainfall interception is a spatially and temporally varying process at multiple scales, but heterogeneity in interception processes are poorly understood...
Shallow, rapid soil mass movements are common events and primary sources
of sediment in steep terrain of the Pacific Northwest.
Poorly vegetated debris deposits and scars resulting from landslides
remove land from the productive timber base, and are subject to
continuing erosion. To examine the impact of these events on...
The volcanic (~45-10 Ma) and plutonic rocks (~37-12 Ma) comprising the Western Cascades extend from northernmost California to southern British Columbia and are ancestral to modern arc magmatism. The ancestral arc hosts a series of small plutons that are locally associated with porphyry (Cu-Mo) and epithermal (Au) ore deposits. Three...
Pseudotsuga menziesii dominates the forests of the Pacific Northwest.
But though it is dominat, Tsuaa heteroohylla or Abies amabilis
is usually climax. Many researchers have studied Pseudotsuga on the
widespread mesic sites where it is seral, but few have examined the
relatively rare ecosystems in which Pseudotsuga or its associate...
Despite the recognized role of soil arthropod fauna on nutrient cycling
and decomposition processes, many aspects of the effects of sylvicultural
methods in forest ecosystems upon their biology remain poorly understood.
The long term effects of prescribed fires on soil arthropods in forest
ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest have never...