Wood export varies among decadal, annual, seasonal, and daily scale hydrologic regimes in a large, Mediterranean climate, mountain river watershed

Abstract

TitleWood export varies among decadal, annual, seasonal, and daily scale hydrologic regimes in a large, Mediterranean climate, mountain river watershed Data AvailabilityThe data associated with this publication are available upon request.

Wood export prediction at the watershed scale

“…Wood export predictions using the peak discharge regression equation from Senter et al . () yielded a 30‐year estimate of ~68 000 m 3 , which falls at the high end of the DVWP wood export equation prediction range of 59 000–71 000 m 3 (Table ). Individual years except for dry WYs were similar to those of Equation predictions.…”

“…A companion paper, Senter et al . (), detailed additional aspects of the work done in the North Yuba River watershed, and introduced a conceptual illustration and functional framework of watershed process wood responses to hydrologic and climatic conditions. Here we extend that work by introduction of watershed processes coefficients (Equation ) and a predictive DVWP wood export equation (Equation ), which helps to close the gap between hydrologic variations and other watershed processes known to exist but that remain difficult to quantify as a function of the hierarchical nature of watersheds and the challenge of integration across multiple spatio‐temporal scales.…”

“…Comparison between DVWP wood export (Equation ) and Senter et al . () predictions revealed mostly similar results for observed W exp quantities (Table ). However, the W exp quantity from WY2013 was excluded in the previous study as anomalously low; inclusion would have reduced the coefficient of determination to 0.60, which is more in line with the other studies.…”

“…The DVWP wood export equation was far superior in predicting observed wood export in dry WYs, whereas the Senter et al . () equation overestimated Equation dry WY predictions by 23–43 times (Table ). There were multiple dry WYs in the validation exercise (Table ) but no annual observations, so additional data are needed to validate the conclusion that dry WY years have low wood export quantities as a function of commensurately low watershed precipitation runoff.…”

“…Finally, volumetric estimations of wood export in WYs where no records exist were calculated by solving Equation using Q peak and the appropriate generalized coefficient depending on WY type, and then comparisons were made between these results and those reported in Senter et al . (), where a regression analysis of wood export yielded a predictive equation focused exclusively on annual peak discharge.…”