Mackenzie Myers presented a poster titled, “Investigating Timber Harvest Controls on Flowpaths in the Peachland Creek Watershed”, at the Graduates of Earth, Environmental and Geographic Sciences (GEESC) Research Symposium held at UBC Okanagan in April 2024.
Freshwater resources in British Columbia’s forested catchments are under increasing strain due to forest disturbance, including timber harvest. Understanding the impact of timber harvesting on watershed hydrology can inform land use planning to better control peak and low flow events, mitigate erosion and habitat loss, as well as preserve freshwater resources.
Towards this, flowpaths and transit times are hydrological processes that offer insight on ecological and resource sustainability risks following forest disturbance. Previous studies have inferred flowpath and transit time changes from streamwater chemical measurements, but there is a lack of research regarding threshold disturbance levels for significant hydrological changes at the watershed sub-basin level.
Mackenzie Myers, MSc Student, Department of Earth, Environmental and Geographic Sciences, presenting a research poster at the 2024 GEESC Research Symposium held in April 2024 at UBC Okanagan.
This study, which takes place in the Peachland Creek Watershed in B.C., explores the impacts of various intensities of timber harvest on streamwater flowpaths and transit times.
Streamwater and precipitation chemical data, as well as stable water isotopic data is being collected over a two-year fieldwork period. The sampling process focuses on a range of sub-basins of similar geography and size, with various intensities of timber harvest. Extracted data is applied towards multivariate analysis with the goal of detecting key relationships between timber harvest and chemistry-inferred hydrological process differences.
Research goals include a comprehensive understanding of flowpaths and transit times in selected sub-basins, as well as the determination of factors underpinning relationships of timber harvest and hydrological process changes, and their significance for the sustainability of freshwater resources and ecological health.
Research results aim to provide watershed-specific disturbance thresholds for significant hydrological process changes in sub-basins. Results may also be applied to broader holistic models and further forest disturbance research in the region. Findings from this research may guide informed land-use planning for watershed management at the municipal and provincial scale.
Article written by Marni Turek (based on the abstract for the poster presentation).
