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Analysis of stream water temperature changes during rainfall events in forested watersheds

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Abstract

Despite continued interest in stream water temperature (Tw) analysis, there are few studies of Tw response to rainfall events at forested watersheds. We examined 61 sets of data on Tw for 21 rainfall events at 16 watersheds with various slope gradients (from 0.08 to 0.56) in four regions of Japan from June 2004 to December 2005. The investigation focused on the changes of specific discharge (ΔQs) and ΔTw at medium-sized watersheds (0.5–100 ha). The results clearly demonstrated different flow patterns expressed by Qs vs. Tw hysteretic loops. Those were clockwise in Period I (April–September) and counterclockwise in Period II (October–March), except for lower slope gradient at Aichi, where counterclockwise loops were observed in both periods. These differences in hysteretic loops could be explained by the differences in Tw and in response times to rainfall between surface/subsurface and groundwater flows. The response times were probably determined by the slope gradient and the vertical level of groundwater. We also found that the changes in air temperature (ΔTa) influenced ΔTw to a lesser degree than Qs. The average rainfall intensities in Period I and Period II (9.3 ± 1.7 and 5.4 ± 0.2 mm/h, respectively) affected the average values of ΔQs and ΔTw (6.62 ± 4.08 mm/h and 1.7 ± 0.4°C; 0.85 ± 0.68 mm/h and 0.9 ± 0.3°C, respectively). This indicates that slope gradient and Qs influenced ΔTw by changing the relative proportions of flow paths. In addition, the water table changes influenced the percentage of groundwater flow to the stream.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Japan Science and Technology Agency, Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology. We express our thanks to all members involved in this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, 305-8502, Japan

    Luki Subehi, Takehiko Fukushima & Yuichi Onda

  2. Watershed Environmental Engineering Research Team, Civil Engineering Research Institute for Cold Region, Public Work Research Institute, Sapporo, 062-8602, Japan

    Shigeru Mizugaki

  3. Graduate School of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo, 183-8509, Japan

    Takashi Gomi

  4. Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan

    Ken’ichirou Kosugi

  5. Faculty of Agriculture, Shinshu University, Nagano, 399-4598, Japan

    Shinya Hiramatsu & Hikaru Kitahara

  6. Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Tokyo, Aichi, 489-0031, Japan

    Koichiro Kuraji

  7. Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 611-0011, Japan

    Tomomi Terajima

Authors
  1. Luki Subehi
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  2. Takehiko Fukushima
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  3. Yuichi Onda
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  4. Shigeru Mizugaki
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  5. Takashi Gomi
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  6. Ken’ichirou Kosugi
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  7. Shinya Hiramatsu
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  8. Hikaru Kitahara
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  9. Koichiro Kuraji
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  10. Tomomi Terajima
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Correspondence to Luki Subehi.

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Subehi, L., Fukushima, T., Onda, Y. et al. Analysis of stream water temperature changes during rainfall events in forested watersheds. Limnology 11, 115–124 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10201-009-0296-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10201-009-0296-2

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