Journal article
The long term effects of thinning treatments on vegetation structure and water yield
SND Hawthorne, PNJ Lane, LJ Bren, NC Sims
Forest Ecology and Management | Published : 2013
Abstract
Forest thinning has the potential to be used as a water supply augmentation strategy through the reduction of sapwood and leaf areas that also decreases stand evapotranspiration. This study investigated the long term effects of a range of thinning treatments (patch-cutting, uniform thinning, strip-thinning, understorey removal) on the vegetation structure and water yield of mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans) forests in south eastern Australia. The paired catchment method and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data were utilised to assess the post-thinning changes in water yield and vegetation structure respectively. The first post-treatment phase started at the end of the treatments in the l..
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Funding Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Darius Culvenor, Anders Siggins and Kimberley Opie from CSIRO Land and Water for their advice and help with LiDAR data processing, Graham Hepworth for valuable statistical advice, Simon Murphy and Phil Noske for recommissioning and maintaining the weir at Crotty Creek, Dom Jaskierniak for forest inventory data of the Black Spur catchments, Phuong Tran for forest inventory data of Crotty Creek, Melbourne Water for the streamflow data of the North Maroondah catchments. This research has been supported by CRC for Forestry and Melbourne University. The authors also thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on this paper.