Abstract
The relationships between water yields of tributaries and coverage of different vegetation types in the corresponding sub-watersheds were investigated during the wet season in the Heishui River Valley, located in the upper portion of the Yangtze River in western China. Stable isotope analysis was used to calculate the relative contributions of the tributaries to water yield in the main stem of the Heishui River, while relative coverages of the different vegetation types were calculated from classified Landsat 7 TM satellite images of the study area. We found that all the sub-watersheds were dominated by two vegetation types (subalpine forest and alpine shrub-meadow) which influenced water yields in opposite ways. Lower subalpine forest coverage was significantly associated with higher tributary water yield, whereas lower alpine shrub-meadow coverage was associated with lower tributary water yield. Comparing our results to similar studies at different spatial scales, we found increasing uncertainty in the relationship between vegetation coverage (total and individual community types) and water yields as scale increased. Nevertheless, the quantitative relationships found in our study may prove useful at the appropriate scales by allowing policy makers and managers to use vegetation coverage as an indicator or index of water yield when attempting to manipulate the vegetation of watersheds to reduce the risk of flooding in this region.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ambroise B (1995) Topography and the water cycle in a temperate middle mountain environment: the need for interdisciplinary experiments. Agric Forest Meteorol 73:217–235
Andreassian V (2004) Waters and forests: from historical controversy to scientific debate. J Hydrol 291:1–27
Bosch JM, Hewlett JD (1982) A review of catchment experiments to determine the effect of vegetation changes on water yield and evapotranspiration. J Hydrol 55:3–23
Brown AE, Zhang L, McMahon TA, Western AW, Vertessy RA (2005) A review of paired catchment studies for determining changes in water yield resulting from alterations in vegetation. J Hydrol 310:28–61
Bruijnzeel LA (1996) Predicting the hydrologic effects of land cover transformation in humid tropics: the need for integrated research. In: Gash JH, Nobre CA, Roberts JM, Victoria RL (ed) Amazonian Deforestation and Climate. Wiley, Hoboken, pp 15–55
Bruijnzeel LA (2004) Hydrological functions of tropical forests: not seeing the soils for the trees. Agr Ecosyst Environ 104:185–228
Cao WZ, Bowden WB, Davie T, Fenemor A (2009) Modelling impacts of land cover change on critical water resources in the Motueka River Catchment, NewZealand. Water Resour Manage 23:137–151
Carlon Allende T, Mendoza ME, Lopez Granados EM, and Morales Manilla LM (2009) Hydrogeographical regionalisation: an approach for evaluating the effects of land cover change in watersheds. A case study in the Cuitzeo lake watershed, central Mexico. Water Resour Manage 23:2587–2603
Chang ZH, Lu ZH, Guan WB (2003) Water holding effect of subalpine dark coniferous forest soil in Gongga Mountain, China. J Forestry Res 14(3):205–209 (in Chinese)
Chen Z (2000) The strategic position and the ecological and environmental function of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. J Mountain Sci 18(3):258–262 (in Chinese)
Chen NS, Chen QB (2003) Frequency of different scale debris flows in limited triggering earth—taking Luojiaba Valley debris flow for example. J Chengdu Univ Technol 30:612–616 (in Chinese)
Dietrich WE, Montgomery DR (1998) Hillslopes, channels, and landscape scale. In: Sposito G (ed) Scale dependence and scale invariance in hydrology. Cambridge University Press, New York, pp 30–60
Fan NJ, Liu YH, An SQ, Wang ZS, Yang HB, Wu C, Zhan JH (2006) Electrical conductivity as an indicator of hydrological characteristics in catchment scale. Chin J Appl Ecol 17(11):2127–2131 (in Chinese)
Giertz S, Junge B, Diekkruger B (2005) Assessing the effects of land use change on soil physical properties and hydrological processes in the sub-humid tropical environment of West Africa. Phys Chem Earth 30:485–496
Guo ZW, Gan YL (2002) Ecosystem function for water retention and forest ecosystem conservation in a watershed of the Yangtze River. Biodivers Conserv 11:599–614
Hewlett JD (1982) Principles of forest hydrology. University of Georgia Press, Athens
Hibbert AR (1967) Forest treatment effects on water yield, Reprint from Proceedings of International Symposium on Forest Hydrology. Penn State University, Pergamon Press, New York
Hou XY (ed) (1982) Vegetation map of China (1:4Million). Map Press, Beijing (in Chinese)
Hou XY (ed) (2002) Vegetation map of China (1:1Million). Map Press, Beijing, China (in Chinese)
Jiang H (1994) Dca ordination,quantitative classification and environmental interpretation of spruce and fir communities in northwest Sichuan and Gansu. Acta Phytoecologica Sinica 18:297–305 (in Chinese)
Jiang H, Liu SR, Sun PS, An SQ, Zhou GY, Li CY, Wang JX, Yu H, Tian XJ (2004) The influence of vegetation type on the hydrological process at the landscape scale. Can J Remote Sensing 30(5):743–763
Jones JA, Grant GE (1996) Peak flow response to clear-cutting and roads in small and large basin, western Cascade, Oregon. Water Resour Res 32(4):959–974
Kendall (1993) Impact of isotope heterogeneity in shallow systems on shallow system on stormflow generation. PhD dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park, p 310
Lee R (1980) Forest hydrolog. Columbia University Press, New York
Leopoldo PR, Martinez JC, Mortatti J (1987) Runoff hydrograph analysis in agricultural watersheds by oxygen-18. In: Isotope techniques in water resources development. IAEA, Vienna, pp 539–550
Liu SR, Sun PS, Wang JX, Chen LW (2001) Hydrological functions of forest vegetation in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. J Nat Resour 16(5):451–456 (in Chinese)
Ma X (1993) Forest hydrology. Chinese Forestry Press, Beijing (in Chinese)
McDonnell JJ, Stewart MK, Owens IF (1991) Effect of catchment-scale subsurface mixing on stream isotopic response. Water Resour Res 27:3065–3073
Mortathi J, Moraes JM, Rodrigues JC, Victoria RL, Martinelli LA (1997) Hydrograph separation of the Amazon River using 18O as an isotopic tracer. Scientia Agricola 54(3):167–173
Phillips DL, Gregg JW (2003) Source partitioning using stable isotopes: coping with too many sources. Oecologia 136:261–269
Pinder GF, Jones JF (1969) Determination of the groundwater component of peak discharge from the chemistry of total runoff. Water Resour Res 5(2):438–445
Post David A, Jones Julia A (2001) Hydrologic regime of forested, mountainous, headwater basin in New Hampshair, North Carolina, Oregon, and Puerto Rico. Adv Water Resour 24:1195–1210
Saghafian B, Farazjoo H, Bozorgy B, Yazdandoost F (2008) Flood Intensification due to Changes in Land Use. Water Resour Manage 22:1051–1067
Sahin V, Hall MJ (1996) The effects of afforestation and deforestation on water yield. J Hydrol 178(1/4):293–309
Sichuan Vegetation Editing Committee (1980) Sichuan vegetation. The People’s Publisher of Sichuan, Chengdu (in Chinese)
Smith RL (1990) Ecology and field biology (4th edn). Harper Collins College Publishers, New York, p 1055
Sun G, Zhou GY, Zhang ZQ, Wei XH, McNulty SG, Vose JM (2006) Potential Water Yield Reduction due to Forestation across China. J Hydrol 328:548–558
Wang ZW (2003) Exploitation of water and power of Heishui Valley. Sichuan Water Power 22:4–6 (in Chinese)
Wang GX, Shen YP, Qian J, Wang JD (2003) Study on the Influence of Vegetation Change on Soil Moisture Cycle in Alpine Meadow. J Glaciol Geocryology 25(6):653–659 (in Chinese)
Wang QX, Watanabe M, Ouyang Z (2005) Simulation of water and carbon fluxes using BIOME-BGC model over crops in China. Agric Forest Meteorol 131:209–224
Wu JG (2000) Landscape ecology (1st edn). Higher Education Press, Beijing (in Chinese)
Zhang WJ, Li M, Wu ZG, Yang BG (2002a) Features and evaluation of glacial landscape resources in Heishui Coutry, Sichuan Province. J Mountain Sci 20:461–465 (in Chinese)
Zhang ZQ, Zhao YT, Yu XX (2002b) Hydrological processes of a dark coniferous forested watershed in the upper reaches of Yangtze River. J Beijing Forestry Univ 24(5/6):25–30 (in Chinese)
Zhuang P, Pen QX, Liu RY, Wu H (1995) Study on the decline state of the abies fabri forest in Emei Mountain. J Wuhan Botanical Res 13:317–328 (in Chinese)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Liu, Y., Leng, X., Deng, Z. et al. Effects of Watershed Vegetation on Tributary Water Yields During the Wet Season in the Heishui Valley, China. Water Resour Manage 25, 1449–1464 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-010-9754-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-010-9754-1