Research Ecologist Carolyn Hunsaker presented a USFS Landscape Science webinar on the Kings River Experimental Watershed on March 19th. This hourly long seminar explored watershed-level experimental design, as well as preliminary results from the Kings River Experimental Watershed study. The presentation was part of a monthly series from the US Forest Service Landscape Science designed to reach out to a range of resource professionals, including Federal, state & local land managers; federal and university landscape science researchers; national forest climate change coordinators; GIS & remote sensing application specialists; NGO representatives, land use planners and other interested citizens. Upcoming seminars are available here. 

ABSTRACT 

The Kings River Experimental Watersheds (KREW) study, partly within the the Sierra National Forest, is one of the more recent long-term research sites established by the Forest Service with data collection starting in 2002.  KREW is designed to evaluate pattern and process on the landscape including  (1) characterizing variability in watershed attributes important to stream and forest processes/health and (2) evaluating forest restoration treatments—mechanical thinning and understory burning.  As a paired-watershed study, KREW is well-suited to address climate change because of its location.  Its rain-dominated lower elevation watersheds, that also receive snow, provide a surrogate for how snow-dominated, higher elevation watersheds may function with climate change.  I will discuss the challenges of designing, implementing, and analyzing integrated ecosystem data (physical, chemical, and biological) at the landscape scale.  Nitrogen (N) will be used as an example attribute.  The pre-treatment phase ended with tree thinning completed in 2012 and prescribed fire planned for 2013-2014.

For more information on KREW, click here.