Most of what we know about the hydrological role of forests is based on paired catchment experiments whereby two neighbouring forested catchments are jointly monitored during a calibration period of several years, after which one of the catchments is kept untouched as a reference (control), while the second is submitted to a forest treatment (impact).
Revisiting Experimental Catchment Studies in Forest Hydrology, generated from a workshop that gathered forest hydrologists from around the world, with the aim of revisiting results and promoting a renewal of international collaboration on this topic, is divided into four sections:
- Addressing new questions using historical data sets combines papers that provide succinct overviews of past and ongoing work in specific catchments or catchment networks with contributions using innovative modelling approaches and older data to investigate current questions. New techniques for evaluating forest cover and catchment characteristics highlight the importance of experimental catchment studies in furthering our understanding of hydrological processes at a range of scales.
- Impacts of fires provides papers describing the hydrological impacts of wildfires and prescribed burning, as measured in experimental catchment studies in Australia and the USA, and drought, fire frequency and fire intensity are discussed.
- Water quality and sediment loads commences with a review that collates paired catchment results from around the world, e.g. the impact of forest harvesting on nitrate-N concentrations and sediment outputs, and provides context for the accompanying papers from the USA and Australia outlining the nature of sediment loads and water quality in forest catchments.
- Ecosystem services presents two papers that showcase the value and importance of experimental catchment studies for the valuation of forest "ecosystem services", and the economic implications of afforestation and other changes in land use.
- Preface by A.A. Webb et al. v-vi
- Comparison between a statistical approach and paired catchment study in estimating water yield response to afforestation Yanhui Wang, Michael Bredemeier, Mike Bonell, Pengtao Yu, Karl-Heinz Feger, Wei Xiong & Lihong Xu 3-11
- Can forest watershed management mitigate climate change effects on water resources? James M. Vose, Chelcy R. Ford, Stephanie Laseter, Salli Dymond, Ge Sun, Mary Beth Adams, Stephen Sebestyen, John Campbell, Charles Luce, Devendra Amatya, Kelly Elder & T 12-25
- The Brigalow catchment study: forty-five years of paired catchment monitoring in the Brigalow Belt of Australia Craig Thornton, Bruce Cowie & Mark Silburn 26-32
- The use of LiDAR elevation data to map channel continuity in southeast Australia Xiaoying Sun, Christopher Thompson & Barry Croke 33-41
- The hidden treasures of long-term paired watershed monitoring in the forests and grasslands of Arizona, USA B. Poff, D. G. Neary, V. Henderson & A. Tecle 42-48
- US Forest Service Experimental Forests and Ranges Network: a continental research platform for catchment-scale research Daniel Neary, Deborah Hayes, Lindsey Rustad, James Vose, Gerald Gottfried, Stephen Sebestyen, Sherri Johnson, Fred Swanson & Mary Ada 49-57
- Seasonal differences in runoff between forested and non-forested catchments: a case study in the Spanish Pyrenees N. Lana-Renault, J. Latron, D. Karssenberg, P. Serrano, D. Regüés & M. F. P. Bierkens 58-63
- Native forest C factor determination using satellite imagery in four sub-catchments Reza Jamshidi, Deirdre Dragovich & Ashley A. Webb 64-73
- Process-based modelling of vegetation to investigate effects of climate and tree cover change on catchment hydrology Paul Feikema, Craig Beverly, Jim Morris, Patrick Lane & Thomas Baker 74-81
- Tropical cyclone effects on rapid runoff responses: quantifying with new continuous-time transfer function models Nick A. Chappell, Mike Bonell, Chris J. Barnes & Wlodek Tych 82-93
- The limits of data: application of a lumped catchment model to a small humid tropical basin Chris Barnes & Mike Bonell 94-105
- Paired catchment experiments and forestry politics in Australia Leon Bren & Don McGuire 106-116
- Merging modelling and experimental approaches to advance ecohydrological system understanding Sven Arnold, Alex Lechner & Thomas Baumgartl 117-124
- Visualising the hydrological signature of an unsteady land cover – an application to deforested and afforested catchments in Australia, the USA and France Vazken Andréassian 125-134
- Fire effects on forest hydrology: lessons from a multi-scale catchment experiment in SE Australia Patrick N. J. Lane, Gary J. Sheridan, Philip J. Noske, Christopher B. Sherwin, John L. Costenaro, Petter Nyman & Hugh G. Smith 137-143
- Cascabel prescribed fire long-term watershed study: an opportunity to monitor climate change Gerald Gottfried, Daniel Neary, Peter Ffolliott & Karen Koestner 144-154
- Hydrologic impact of fire on the Croppers Creek paired catchment experiment Leon Bren 154-165
- Forest paired catchment studies of water quality: past, present, and future Daniel G. Neary 169-184
- Sediment storage, yield and wood accumulation in ephemeral headwater channels, southeastern Australia Peter Walsh, Ashley Webb & Chris Thompson 185-194
- Sediment loads and erosion in forest headwater streams of the Sierra Nevada, California Carolyn T. Hunsaker & Daniel G. Neary 195-203
- Payments for watershed services and the role of experimental catchment studies Ashley A. Webb 207-216
- Demand for water use by new tree plantations and downstream economic, social and environmental interests Tom Nordblom, Iain Hume & John Finlayson 217-232