Relative humidity gradients across riparian areas in eastern Oregon and Washington forests

Robert J. Danehy; Brian J. Kirpes

Back

Relative humidity gradients across riparian areas in eastern Oregon and Washington forests

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Relative humidity gradients across riparian areas in eastern Oregon and Washington forests

Robert J. Danehy and Brian J. Kirpes

Northwest science., Vol.74(3), pp.224-233

2000

Handle:

https://hdl.handle.net/2376/1020

Files and links (1)

pdf

v74 p224 Danehy and Kirpes602.33 kBDownload View

Rights Statements InC/1.0 , Open Access

Abstract

relative humidity

streams

riparian forests

diurnal variation

spatial variation

evaporation

transpiration

riparian vegetation

microclimate

selective felling

forests

Forest Management

Riparian relative humidity (RH) gradients were examined at 12 sites east of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon and Washington (USA) in 1997. All the sites were on commercial timber lands with selective (partial) harvesting as the silvicultural prescription. The microclimatic information is needed to prescribe effective buffers for riparian dependent flora and fauna in eastside forests. RH was monitored at increasing distances from the stream edge to 30 m into the adjacent riparian forests. Within 10 m of the stream edge RH was similar to upland conditions with little change beyond 10 m. At 9 of the 12 sites differences in mean minimum RH were significant (P<0.05) between 0 and 5 m. The length of time that RH was less than 50% between 0 and 5 m was significant at 11 of the 12 sites. Diurnal fluctuation ranges of more than 75% RH with maximums close to 100% occurred at night at all sites. The diurnal pattern of temperature is the dominant process in air moisture regime in these eastside forests. The small daytime increases in RH close to the stream, which can be maintained over short distances by steep local topography, are apparently due to evaporation from wetted stream width and transpiration from vegetation immediately adjacent to the stream.

Metrics

388 File views/ downloads

324 Record Views

Details

Title: Relative humidity gradients across riparian areas in eastern Oregon and Washington forests
Creators: Robert J. Danehy (Author)
Brian J. Kirpes (Author)
Publication Details: Northwest science., Vol.74(3), pp.224-233
Academic Unit: Northwest Science
Publisher: WSU Press
Identifiers: 99900502708501842
Copyright: In copyright ; openAccess ; http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ ; http://purl.org/eprint/accessRights/OpenAccess
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article