Effects of reforestation on near‐surface saturated hydraulic conductivity in a managed forest landscape, southern Ontario, Canada

Abstract

Reforestation of previously deforested landscapes often increases soil organic matter content and porosity as the plantation forest ages, leading to increased soil saturated hydraulic conductivity (KH). However, the time required for a reforested soil's KH to recover to that of the original forest differs considerably between locations because of variations in forest, climatic and soil properties. We examined a chronosequence of sites on similar soils in a managed forest landscape in southern Ontario, Canada, ranging from open fields deforested in the late 19th century, through red pine (Pinus resinosa) stands of varying age, to 100+ year‐old mixed conifer–hardwoods. Soil texture, organic matter content, bulk density, KH, and overstory and understory forest characteristics were measured. For sites with similar soil textures, there was a general increase in KH in the following sequence: open fields → red pine plantations → mixed conifer–hardwood stands. There were no significant changes in near‐surface organic matter contents or soil bulk densities with forest age, and neither factor was related to temporal changes in KH. Temporal trends in KH were associated with increased understory density with forest age, suggesting that increases in KH were driven by understory root development and greater macroporosity. It may take ~25 years before reforestation begins to affect soil infiltration characteristics at the stand scale and at least 40 years following planting before the KH of soils under red pine plantations begins to equal that for undisturbed mixed conifer–hardwood stands. This recovery may be assisted by management activities such as thinning of red pine stands, which promotes understory development. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mediating stream baseflow response to climate change: The role of basin storage

“…The fractional coverage of each LULC type was determined for each basin. Forest land cover on the ORM promotes greater infiltration and subsurface storage of precipitation inputs relative to agricultural (Greenwood & Buttle, ) and urban LULCs (Hubbart & Zell, ).…”

Soil permeability, aggregate stability and root growth: a pot experiment from a soil bioengineering perspective

“…Soil permeability (or surface and near surface saturated hydraulic conductivity, k s ) is a key hydrological property affecting different fields of interest: from agriculture to forestry to slope stability and flood protection (Collison et al, 1995;Bens et al, 2007;Gonzales-Sosa et al, 2010;Hencher, 2010;Pagenkemper et al, 2014;Rienzner and Gandolfi, 2014). It controls the partitioning of precipitation into vertical and lateral pathways, thus influencing the generation of runoff and subsurface pore water pressure (Archer et al, 2013;Greenwood and Buttle, 2014).…”

“…The effects of plants on soil permeability are instead more controversial. As reviewed by Chandler and Chappell (2008) and recalled by Archer et al (2013), it is commonly accepted that trees enhance soil permeability (Lorimer and Douglas, 1995;Greenwood and Buttle, 2014). However, the results of an increasing number of studies suggest that this is not universally true and depends on the soil type, the 'disturbance history' of the soil and the vegetation cover type (Gabr et al, 1995;Chappell and Franks, 1996;Bonell et al, 2010;Lichner et al, 2010;Ghimire et al, 2014).…”

Land cover controls on depression‐focused recharge on the Oak Ridges Moraine, southern Ontario, Canada

“…Gravel content (particles >2‐mm diameter) of each core section was obtained by sieving, and sand, silt, and clay portions of the fraction ≤2‐mm diameter were measured using a Horiba LA‐950 V2 Laser Scattering Particle Size Distribution Analyzer. Three measurements of topsoil saturated hydraulic conductivity ( K H ) were made at crest and base R sites of each depression using a double‐ring cylinder infiltrometer (Greenwood & Buttle, ). Each depression was surveyed with a GPS unit (Trimble, GEO XH 6000/7) with an average vertical and horizontal accuracy of 0.11 and 0.15 m, respectively.…”