Weeks 3 & 4 | Forests and Water Quality
October 1st, 2009 at 15:09by Alison Cole
This week and next we will be focusing on the fundamentals of hydrological processes (water cycles) that occur in the presence of forest. Below is a figure taken from Schoenholtz (2004) in our syllabus describing the basic water cycle in forested areas. 
In this discussion we want to identify the role of forest in preserving the water cycle, and what happens to the cyle when land is deforested. Also, there are many examples in our syllabus of how the water cycle changes once land is reforested.
Here is an awesome video tutorial on the role of forests in watersheds. A watershed is the geographical area drained by a river and its tributaries. A great example would be the Amazon basin.
Forests and Watershed Video Tutorial (~8 min)
References
- Schoenholtz, S.H. 2004. Impacts of forest management on water quality. pp. 377-388 in Burley, J., J. Evans, and J. Youngquist, eds. Encyclopedia of Forest Sciences. Elsevier Ltd., Oxford, U.K.
October 7th, 2009 at 4:32 am
Thanks for the link to the video – it video provides a great introduction and is suitable for non-experts like myself. I spent the past few hours browsing through the course materials and earlier discussion and am amazed by the amount of materials you are covering here. The more I read, the more I get worried that not enough people are aware of these serious problems and challenges. I am also glad I am coming into this at a point where you start speaking of solutions …
A few reactions to the video:
* I was surprised that the best practices mentioned are referred to as “voluntary”. I would have expected there to be clearly articulated and enforced guidelines that specify establishment and size of conservation buffers or streamside management zones. Do such guidelines exist in some countries?
* I spend a lot of time walking on the slopes of Table Mountain (in Cape Town) with my dog and witness the effects of heavy rains immediately. I had never thought about it this way, but it’s very easy to see how the rain water prefers to run down the walking paths that were created through the thick bush growth (fynbos – http://www.google.de/) and bring a lot of red soil down with them.
* In Cape Town, there is a strong movement to eradicate alien plants, including what appear to my naive eye, beautiful trees. Can bush provide some of the important functions of forests with respect to water quality, or are we risking soil and water degradation by getting rid of the alien trees?
I am asking more questions than I am answering …