Amatya; D.M.; Mukherjee, S.; Keppeler, E.; Caldwell, P.; Johnson, S.; Sebestyen, S.; Campbell, J.; Rau, B.; Elder, K.; Misra, D.; Wohlgemuth, P. 2025. Trends and Characteristics of Hydroclimatic Extremes on Reference Watersheds in Experimental Forests in the USA. In: Forest Hydrology: Processes, Management, and Applications, 2nd Edition. Eds. L. Bren, D. Amatya, T. Williams, C. DeJong, and G. Sun. CAB International Publishers. Chapter 5.72-96. doi:https://doi.org/10.1079/9781800625310.0005
This chapter provides an overview and comparisons of the precipitation intensity–duration–frequency (PIDF) and flood (FFRQ) and low-flow (LFRQ) frequencies for return intervals of 25 years or more at ten relatively undisturbed reference watersheds in the US Forest Service Experimental Forest (EF) network. We demonstrate potential effects of recent climate change on the PIDFs, FFRQ and LFRQ developed with high-resolution temporal data at these ten sites with widely contrasting hydrogeological, topographical, climatic and ecological characteristics. Similarly, we evaluate the on-site-based FFRQ and LFRQ with those published by the US Geological Survey for the regions including our EF sites. This evaluation enables us to better predict PIDFs and FFRQs, frequently used by forest managers/engineers but relatively less studied in forest hydrology, and to prepare for future forest and water management in response to further environmental change.