Duration of stream temperature increases following forest cutting in the Southern Appalachian mountains. Swift, L. Proceedings of the international symposium on hydrometeorology, 1983.
Duration of stream temperature increases following forest cutting in the Southern Appalachian mountains. [pdf]Paper  abstract   bibtex   
Cutting timber along small streams in the Southern Appalachian Mountains increases water temperature. Clearcutting all vegetation over 2.5 cm d.b.h. from a 59.6-ha south-facing watershed in western North Carolina allowed both the magnitude and duration of water temperature increases to be studied. About 958 m2 of stream were exposed. Daily maximum temperatures at the downstream margin of the cutting were increased an average of 3.3 C the first two summers after cutting. The increases declined in the next three summers to 1.2 C. Daily minimums were increased about 1.3 C both winter and summer, but only in the first year. The daily range of water temperatures (maximum minus minimum) was increased during all five summers. A method for predicting water temperature changes was tested and found to overestimate the summer increases.

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