Long-term changes in water quality and solute exports in headwater streams of intensively managed radiata pine and natural eucalypt forest catchments in south-eastern Australia

Abstract

The Cropper Creek Hydrology Project was established in 1975 to study the hydrology of three small catchments of mixed species eucalypt (Eucalyptus spp.) forest. In 1980 one catchment was cleared for the establishment of a radiata pine (Pinus radiata D. Don) plantation but a 30-m wide buffer zone of undisturbed eucalypt forest was left along the stream. This change in land use increased annual water yield by 3.5 ML/ha during the first 6 years, but only minor changes in water quality were observed. The project was resumed in 1997 to evaluate the long-term changes in hydrology and water quality of the 17 year-old plantation compared with the historic data for the original eucalypt forest prior ..