FLOW FREQUENCY RESPONSES TO HARDWOOD-TO-GRASS CONVERSION AND SUBSEQUENT SUCCESSION

A 8.9 ha (22 acre) catchment at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in western North Carolina was cleared of hardwood forest in 1958 and 1959 and seeded to Kentucky 31 fescue grass in 1959 and 1960. Grass production was high in years when fertilizer was applied and water yield was very similar to that expected from the original forest cover. As grass production declined, so water yields rose, with important increases in the magnitude of both low frequency flows and, particularly, in baseflow. In 1967 and 1968, when all vegetation was deadened in the catchment, the discharge levels in all flow frequency classes were higher. Natural revegetation was then allowed and water yields gradually declined towards the expected level, although there remained a tendency for winter flows to remain higher, and for summer flows to be lower than expected. This paper updates the earlier work of Hibbert (1969) and uses flow duration curves to extend his results.