Abstract
The presented study focuses on the impact of deadwood on surface water run-off, which was examined under laboratory conditions. In total we performed 600 rainfall simulations with harvest residues (wood with maximum length of 1 m and maximum diameter of 7 cm) that were either fresh (collected immediately after the harvest) or old (3 years and 3 months after harvest). The research analysed the impact of different values of deadwood coverage (15%, 30%), direction of its spatial arrangement (along the contour line, along the slope, random), moisture and decay stage (fresh, old) of deadwood situated on the slope with different inclinations (1% and 25%) under different rainfall intensities (5, 20, 40, 80 and 150 mm/h) on water run-off. The obtained results confirmed the significant impact of terrain slope on water run-off. The run-off from 1% slope represented 32% of the run-off observed from 25% slope. From the point of deadwood coverage, we found the fastest run-off at the smaller coverage of 15%, while in the case of 30% deadwood coverage, the run-off was only 75% of the value for 15% coverage. Decay stage of deadwood had also a significant impact on water run-off, which was by one third lower in the case of old deadwood in comparison to fresh wood. The water run-off was the fastest in the case of the spatial arrangement of deadwood along the contour line, and the slowest in the case of randomly distributed deadwood in all directions.
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Data availability
The data presented in this study are available from the corresponding author on request. The data are not publicly available due to the ongoing analyses.
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Funding
This work was supported by the slovak research and development agency (APVV) [grant number 15-0714] “Mitigation of climate change risk by optimization of forest harvesting scheduling” and [grant number 18-0305] “Utilisation of progressive methods for evaluation of forest logging impacts on forest ecosystems and road network” and by scientific grant agency VEGA [grant number 1/0241/20] “Optimization and environmental impact of logging technologies in close to nature forest management”, the grant “EVA4.0,” no. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000803, financed by OP RDE, and the project: “Scientific support of climate change adaptation in agriculture and mitigation of soil degradation” (ITMS2014 + 313011W580, (5%)) supported by the Operational Programme Integrated Infrastructure (OPII) funded by the ERDF.
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Conceptualization was contributed by JM, ZD, and KM. Methodology was contributed by JM, ZD, and KM. Formal analysis was contributed by JM, KM, ZD, and MV. Investigation was contributed by JM, ZD, MF, MV, VJ, and MA. Data curation was contributed by JM, KM, and ZD. Writing—original draft preparation was contributed by JM, ZD, KM, and MV. Writing—review and editing was contributed by JM and KM. Supervision was contributed by JM. Project administration was contributed by JM. Funding acquisition was contributed by JM. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
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Merganič, J., Dudáková, Z., Merganičová, K. et al. Impact of fine woody debris on surface water run-off. Eur J Forest Res 142, 381–393 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-022-01528-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-022-01528-7