Soil moisture and micrometeorological differences across reference and thinned stands during extremes of precipitation, southern Cascade Range
Author
Hardage, K.Wheelock, S.J.
Gaffney, R.
O’Halloran, T.
Serpa, B.
Grant, G.
Coppoletta, M.
Csank, A.
Tague, C.
Staudacher, M.
Tyler, S.
Affiliation
Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Science, University of ArizonaIssue Date
2022Keywords
California (United States)climate change
drought
forest management
fuels reduction
soil moisture
thinning
wildfire risk
Metadata
Show full item recordPublisher
Frontiers Media S.A.Citation
Hardage, K., Wheelock, S. J., Gaffney, R., O’Halloran, T., Serpa, B., Grant, G., Coppoletta, M., Csank, A., Tague, C., Staudacher, M., & Tyler, S. (2022). Soil moisture and micrometeorological differences across reference and thinned stands during extremes of precipitation, southern Cascade Range. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 5.Rights
Copyright © 2022 Hardage, Wheelock, Gaffney, O’Halloran, Serpa, Grant, Coppoletta, Csank, Tague, Staudacher and Tyler. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).Collection Information
This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
Modern forest management generally relies on thinning treatments to reduce fuels and mitigate the threat of catastrophic wildfire. They have also been proposed as a tool to augment downstream flows by reducing evapotranspiration. Warming climates are causing many forests to transition from snow-dominated to rain-dominated precipitation regimes—in which water stores are depleted earlier in the summer. However, there are relatively few studies of these systems that directly measure the hydrologic impacts of such treatments during and following snow-free winters. This work compares the below-canopy meteorological and subsurface hydrologic differences between two thinning prescriptions and an unaltered Control during periods of extreme drought and near-record precipitation (with little snow). The field site was within a coniferous forest in the rain-snow transition zone of the southern Cascades, near the Sierra Nevada Range of California. Both thinning-prescriptions had a modest and predictable impact on below-canopy meteorology, which included their causing lower nighttime minimum temperatures in the critical summer months and higher wind speeds. Relative to the Control, both treatments affected soil moisture storage by delaying its annual decline and increasing its minimum value by the end of the season. The onset of soil moisture depletion was strongly tied to the magnitude of winter precipitation. In dry years, it began much earlier within the dense Control stand than in the treated ones, and, without snow, soil moisture was not replenished in the late spring. During high precipitation years, the storage capacity was topped off for all three stands, which resulted in similar timing of moisture decline across them, later in the season. The two thinning prescriptions increased stores through the height of summer (in wet and drought years). Finally, the basal area increment (BAI) of the remaining trees rose in both, suggesting they used the excess moisture to support rapid growth. Copyright © 2022 Hardage, Wheelock, Gaffney, O’Halloran, Serpa, Grant, Coppoletta, Csank, Tague, Staudacher and Tyler.Note
Open access journalISSN
2624-893XVersion
Final published versionae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.3389/ffgc.2022.898998
Scopus Count
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Copyright © 2022 Hardage, Wheelock, Gaffney, O’Halloran, Serpa, Grant, Coppoletta, Csank, Tague, Staudacher and Tyler. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).

