Stream and bed temperature response to partial-retention forest harvesting in a coastal headwater catchment

This study quantified the effects of partial-retention forest harvesting on stream and bed temperatures in a headwater catchment in coastal British Columbia, Canada. Stream temperature was recorded between 2002 and 2005 at four sites, three located within the harvested area and one upstream. Logging occurred in autumn 2004. Shallow groundwater temperatures, along with bed temperature profiles at depths of 1 to 30 cm, were recorded at 10-minute intervals in two hydrologically distinct reaches beginning in 2003 or 2004, depending on the site. The lower reach had smaller discharge contributions via lateral inflow from the hillslopes and fewer areas with upwelling and/or neutral flow across the stream bed compared to the middle reach. Based on a paired-catchment analysis, the logging treatment resulted in higher daily maximum stream and bed temperatures but smaller changes in daily minima. Changes in daily maximum stream temperature, averaged over July and August of the post-harvest year, ranged from 1.6 to 3 ^oC at different locations within the cut block. Post-harvest changes in bed temperature in the lower reach were lower than the changes in stream temperature, greater at sites with downwelling flow, and decreased with depth at both upwelling and downwelling sites, dropping to about 1 ^oC at a depth of 30 cm. In the middle reach, changes in daily maximum bed temperature, averaged over July and August, were generally about 1 ^oC and did not vary significantly with depth. The pre-harvest regression models for shallow groundwater were not suitable for applying the paired-catchment analysis to estimate the effects of harvesting.