Exploring the Interactions among Beetle-induced Changes in Catchment-scale Ecohydrology, Land Surface Fluxes and the Lower Atmosphere with a Coupled Hydrology-Atmospheric Model.

Abstract:

The mountain pine beetle has dramatically altered ecohydrologic processes of lodgepole pine forests in western North America, having caused one of the largest insect-driven tree mortalities in recorded history. Documented and modeled responses to forest mortality include cessation of overstory transpiration, local increases in soil moisture, changes in snow accumulation and ablation, differences in groundwater and runoff contributions to streamflow, changes in sensible and latent heat partitioning, and higher surface temperatures and ground evaporation. However, the scale-sensitivity, spatial variability and interdependence of these responses, and the simultaneous process of forest recovery, mean that watershed response to infestation is often inconsistent and damped at large scales, making it difficult to capture individual hydrologic and energy components of disturbance. This study resolves complicated feedbacks from disturbance at the land surface to responses in the atmosphere with the use of the physically-based, integrated hydrologic model ParFlow, coupled to the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) atmospheric model. The model domain, constructed at 1-km resolution, encompasses a 25,200 square kilometer region over a Rocky Mountain headwaters catchment in Colorado. Land use and vegetation parameters within WRF were adjusted in a detailed ensemble approach to reflect beetle-induced reductions in stomatal conductivity and LAI. Results show spatially variable but generally increased soil moisture and water yield with infestation. Subsequent disturbance of the sensible and latent heat balance propagates into the atmosphere, influencing atmospheric moisture, stability and even precipitation. This work presents the applicability of a deterministic, integrated climate-hydrologic model to identify complicated physical interactions occurring with forest disturbance, which may not be discernable with simpler models or observations.