HYDROLOGY AND WATER QUALITY OF A DRAINED LOBLOLLY PINE PLANTATION IN COASTAL NORTH CAROLINA

1
HYDROLOGY AND WATER QUALITY OF A DRAINED LOBLOLLY
PINE PLANTATION IN COASTAL NORTH CAROLINA

• D.M. Amatya1, R.W. Skaggs2, and J.W. Gilliam2

1/ USDA Forest Service, 2/ North Carolina State
University.
Weyerhaeuser Company and National Council of
Industries for Stream Air Improvement (NCASI)
2
PRESENTATION OUTLINE

• Background
• Objectives
• Field Experimental Methods
• Hydro-Meteorologic Monitoring
• Tree Physiologic Measurements
• Water Quality Sampling
• Hydrologic Budget
• Hydrologic relationships
• Nutrients and Sediments
• Summary

3
BACKGROUND

• Forests cover 55 of the southern US
• 1 mil ha of drained pine plantation
• Trafficability and productivity
• Land use pressures Environmental set asides
• Intensive management practices
• Drainage, Harvesting, Bedding, Fertilization,
  Thinning etc.
• Proximity to sensitive estuarine eco-systems
• Continuing environmental concerns
• Fresh water outflows
• A need for research to address this on drained
  forests

4
WEYERHAEUSER
NCASI
FOREST SERVICE
3 experimental watersheds (WeyCo) - 1988
Carteret County, Coastal NC
Planted
Control
5
PINE STAND HISTORY

• 1972 Clearcut
• 1973 Site Prep w/P application, Field Ditching
• 1974 Pine Seedlings Planted
• 1980 Pre-commercial Thinning
• 1981 Aerial Fertilizer Application (N)
• 1988 Commercial Thinning
• 1989 Fertilizer Application (N P) - Ground

6
HISTORY OF STUDIES

• 1988 90 Calibration (D1 Control)
• 1990 94 Controlled Drainage (Weir)D2 Tree
  Growth D3 Offsite impacts
• 1995 97 Harvesting (D2)
• 1998 Till Date (D2 planted for regeneration)
• 1995 99 Controlled Drainage (Orifice) on D3
• 2002 Thinning Treatment on D3
• 2005 Fertilizer Treatment (Current)

7
OBJECTIVES

• To describe the hydrology and water quality of
  the drained loblolly pine plantation (Control)
  using 18 years (1988- 2005) of data collected on
  the experimental forest.
• To use the data for development and testing of a
  model and explore empirical hydrologic
  relationships (water table, outflow, ET).

8
AERIAL VIEW OF WATERSHED (D1)
100 m
100 m
Rain and Flow Gauges
9
WATERSHED CHARACTERISTICS

• 25 ha ( 60 acres) 34o 50 N and 76o 39 W
• Loblolly Pine Plantation (Pinus Teada L.)
• Planted 1974 Thinned 1988 with Fertilization
• 395 trees/ha, 16.3 m2/ha basal area
• Deloss Fine Sandy Loam Soil
• 0-0.5 m Fine sandy loam gt 0.5 m Clay loam
• Hydraulic Conductivity 16 cm hr-1 (3.9 m d-1)
• Drainable Porosity 0.05 m m-1

10
INSTRUMENTATION MONITORING

• Precipitation
• Weather Parameters
• Stage and Outflow
• Water Quality/ISCO
• 3 Experimental Plots
• Water Table Elevations
• Well Transects
• Lateral Seepage
• Soil Moisture (TDR)
• Litter Fall/Li-COR (LAI)
• Throughfall/Interception
• Stomatal Conductance (Porometer)
• Tree Height
• DBH

11
FIELD MONITORING
Rain Gauge
V-Weir Outlet
Stage Flow rate Water quality
12
Soil moisture
Thrufall Dendrometry Water level
Leaf Area Index
GW well/Datalogger
13
(No Transcript)
14
WEATHER STATION
2001-2005
1997-01
1987-97
Ophelias Impact
15
LONG-TERM RAINFALL
16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18
(No Transcript)
19
ANNUAL RAINFALL RUNOFF
20
AVERAGE MONTHLY RAIN OUTFLOW
21
(No Transcript)
22
(No Transcript)
23
WATER BALANCE COMPONENTS
24
CUMULATIVE WATER BALANCE
25
DRAINED FOREST WATER BALANCE
DRAINMOD (Skaggs, 1978) ---? DRAINLOB (McCarthy,
1989)
- Interception (LAI) - Evapotranspiration (gs) -
Modified Drainage
Throughfall
3.0 m
Soil water storage
Ks 16 cm hr-1
Deep Seepage
(After Skaggs et al., 1994)
26
DRAINLOB INPUTS OUTPUTS

• Hourly precipitation
• Daily max min air T or Daily PET or hourly
  weather data
• Daily LAI and gs function for P-M ET
• Soil hydraulic parameters Hydraulic
  Conductivity, Soil moisture retention, porosity
  etc.
• Rooting depth
• Initial WT depth
• Surface storage

• Daily, Monthly, Annual
• Rainfall
• Interception
• Throughfall
• Total ET
• Surface Runoff
• Subsurface Drainage
• Total Water Loss
• Water Table Depth
• Soil Wetness Index

27
DAILY WATER TABLE PREDICTIONS
AADD 15 cm
28
DAILY FLOW PREDICTIONS
29
DRAINMOD APPLICATIONS

• Controlled Drainage including an Orifice-Weir
• Silvicultural Treatments (Harvesting/Thinning)
• Watershed-scale Model with Flow Routing
• Cumulative Effects of Management Practices
• Impacts of Climate Change Scenarios
• Evaluating Nitrogen Dynamics and Fate of
  Fertilizer Applications

30
EMPIRICAL RELATIONSHIPS

• Long-term Water Balance ET Rain Outflow
• Annual ET 0.53Rain 0.38PET
• Zhang ET R(1w(Eo/R)/(1 w(Eo/R) (Eo/R)-1
• Seasonal Flow f(Seasonal Rain)
• Daily Flow f(Daily WTD)
• Annual Flow f(Rain)
• Annual WTD f(Rain) f(Flow)
• Annual ET f(Rain, PET)

31
(No Transcript)
32
Daily Outflow has NO relationship with Daily
Rainfall at all
Ditch Depth 1.2 m
33
(No Transcript)
34
(No Transcript)
35
NUTRIENT- FLOW RELATIONSHIPS
36
(No Transcript)
37
1988 - 2005
38
SUMMARY

• 18-years (1988-05) of data 14 to 31 years old
  stand age
• 2003 very wet (2388 mm) and 2001 very dry (950
  mm)
• Several Hurricanes and Tropical Storms since 1996
• Average annual rain (1542 mm) and its monthly
  distribution wetter than the long-term (1337 mm)
• 38 rain Summer, 20-22 in the rest of the
  seasons
• Water table responsive to rainfall and ET
• Average water table 1.74 m msl ( 0.95 m) 61
  of time

39
SUMMARY (Contd..)

• R/O coefficient 0.05 (2001) 0.56 (2003) 0.34
  average
• Sustained flows in winter High Flows in Summer
• 39 - Winter 26 - Summer 21 - Fall 14 -
  Spring
• DRAINMOD/DRAINLOB A management tool
• Flow f(Rain) Spring and Summer Flow f(WTD)
• Both Annual Outflow and WTD f(Rain) and Annual
  Outflow f(WTD)
• Outflow 30-35 ET 65-70 of Rainfall
• ET 1000 to 1050 mm Interception 200-250 mm

40
SUMMARY (Contd..)

• No relationships of nutrients with flow
• Average Concentrations of N components lt 1.2 mg
  L-1 Similar to data from other forested sites
• Average Loadings of N components lt 7 kg ha-1
• Long-term data Processes and budgets as
  affected by climatic variation and management,
  Reference for assessing impacts
  Developing/Testing models
• Potential for further studies on this site
• Data and Models Land management decisions for
  similar drained forest sites

41
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

• Weyerhaeuser Pete Farnum, Joe Hughes, Jami
  Nettles, Sandra McCandless, Joe Bergman, Cliff
  Tyson, Martin Lebo, Bob Campbell, Jim Flewelling
• NCASI, Inc. Jim Shepard, Alan Lucier, Vickie
  Tatum
• NC State University Jim Gregory, Edward
  McCarthy, Christine Blanton, Bertha Crabtree,
  Phillis, Chip Chescheir, Wilson Huntley, Lee
  Allen, David Sampson, JianBiao Lu
• Forest Service Ge Sun
• University of Georgia Wade Nutter, Christine
  Smith
• College of Charleston Jeff Cooke, Scott Harder,
  David Joyner

THANK YOU - Any Questions !!!