New Mexico Geological Society Annual Spring Meeting — Abstracts

×

Results of an eleven-year paired basin study in the upper Santa Fe River watershed following forest thinning and prescribed burns successfully measured water budget components in a treated and an untreated basin. The study was established to investigate questions that have arisen regarding changes in water yield from forest treatments such as thinning and prescribed burns. Precipitation, stream flow, soil moisture, and chloride concentrations in precipitation and stream flow were measured to quantify the water budget components. The results from data collection and analysis have a high degree of confidence with respect to measuring the water budget components based on the mass balance of water and chloride. The differences in the geologic structure and topography between the two paired basins appeared to impact the water budgets more than the forest treatments, except during periods when winter precipitation and snowmelt represented a significant component of inflow. Variation in the chloride concentration of precipitation samples indicates that horizontal precipitation of chloride in the tree canopy (i.e., direct interception of cloud or fog moisture, also known as occult precipitation) is an important consideration when using the chloride mass balance.