The Effects of Forest Harvesting and Soil Scarification on Catchment Water and Nutrient Fluxes (VALU)

The aim of this long-term study is to investigate water and nutrient fluxes in forested headwater catchments and to determine the effects of final cuttings and soil preparation on ground vegetation, soil, soil water, ground water, and stream water. A"paired catchment" approach is used. In addition to selecting five catchments in eastern Finland for the project, the catchments from the old Nurmes-project, established in 1980, are also included. Forestry operations done in the catchments include: clear-cutting, soil preparation, and regeneration. The biogeochemistry of the catchments has been continuously monitored allowing pools, fluxes and mass balances of water, carbon and nutrients to be calculated. are monitored. The long-term data sets are not only suited to monitoring the impacts of forest management practice but also suited to the study of climate change and recovery from declining acid deposition loading, and to the application of dynamic biogeochemical models. As a result, there has been and is considerable cooperation with many national and international projects, and funding has come from many sources.
The project is led by the Finnish Forest Research Institute (Joensuu Unit), and carried out in cooperation with University of Helsinki, the North Karelia Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment, the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Metsähallitus (Forest and Park Service), Aalto University School of Science and Technology, University of Eastern Finland, University of Oulu, and the Geological Survey of Finland (GSF). There is also cooperation with research groups in Sweden (SLU), Japan (Hyogo University), USA (Michigan Tech. University), and UK (Centre for Ecology and Hydrology).