FOR 810 Forest Hydrology (3 cr, 2-2)
New Graduate Level Course (Interim)
Designed forSoilScientist and Ecologists
as well as Hydrologists
Contact: James HartOffice Phone355 – 9528email
Course Description: “Water inputs, outputs, storage and internal fluxes of forest, rural and wetland ecosystems. Ecological and environmental interpretation of precipitation, soil water, evaporation, leaching, groundwater and stream hydrographs. Quantitative modeling.”
Class Schedule: WF 8-850 in NR 221 with labs Thursday from 4-6 in NR 225. Also Computer Lab NR 218.
(Class times may be rescheduled following initial classes based on student schedules)
The course focus will be on water, but the context will be on water relations of natural and managed terrestrial systems more than watersheds and streams. It will be rigorous regarding processes and properties and quantitatively based emphasizing computations and modeling.
Labs will involve hands on data acquisition with recording weather stations and data logging soil and groundwater sensors. Exercises will utilize Excel spreadsheets and MathCad worksheets to do calculations. Results will focus on daily to weekly hydrographs of water stored in soils, evapotranspired back to the atmosphere, and leached below rooting. It will cover groundwater inputs, storage and outputs. The link between terrestrial hydrographs and stream hydrographs will be discussed.
ExampleLecture Discussion Topics:
FOR 810 Forest Hydrology (3 cr, 2-2)
New Graduate Level Course (Interim)
- soil horizon depth and textures
- effective rooting depths
- soil available water storage capacities
- acquisition and use of daily weather station information
- potential evapotranspiration estimation
- soil water content and availability
- daily actual evapotranspiration by water balance
- leaching below rooting depth
- groundwater recharge
- weekly, monthly, seasonal and annual summaries and interpretation of above
FOR 810 Forest Hydrology (3 cr, 2-2)
New Graduate Level Course (Interim)
Planned Lab Activities:
FOR 810 Forest Hydrology (3 cr, 2-2)
New Graduate Level Course (Interim)
- Using MathCad; Significant Digits
- Watershed & Water Units; Calculations
- Hydrologic Water Units and Calculations
- Atmospheric Moisture and Energy Relationships
- Probability and Frequency Analysis of P
- Precipitation Analyses
- Soil and Water Calculations
- Soil Wetting Fronts and Recharge Calculations
- Calculations of Potential Evapotranspiration
- Computerized Forest Hydrology Models (e.g BROOK90)
- Water Balance Computations
- Piezometric Surface Gradients, Directions and Flows
FOR 810 Forest Hydrology (3 cr, 2-2)
New Graduate Level Course (Interim)
Field Trips:Meteorological Weather Stations and Data Acquisition
Soil Moisture Monitoring by Data Logger
Visit to Red Cedar Gauging Station
Groundwater Piezometer Wells & Water Sampling
Student Projects: Students will select a project related to a (1) Plant-Soil-Groundwater System or (2) Forest Plot System. They will define System Components: Inputs, Outputs, Storage &Transfers. They will then work in teams to build and utilize Hydrologic System Models predicting responses to climatic differences and differences between soil-plant systems. Project reports will be prepared and presented.
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