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Effect of Slope and Aspect on Litter Layer Moisture Content of Lodgepole Pine Stands in the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains of Alberta

For two fire seasons in Nordegg, Alberta, a system of in-stand weather stations were arranged along a north and south aligned valley and combined with collection of destructive fine fuel moisture content data in order to quantify variations due to differences in slope and aspect. South-facing sites were found to be slightly warmer (1.5°C), less humid (5%) and received on average 20% more solar radiation than the north-facing sites during the peak burning period of the day. Based on these weather observations a difference of 1 or 2 % moisture content between north and south sites was predicted using existing theoretical relationships. A corresponding
difference in observed moisture content was not identified, due to the low transmittance recorded at the in-stand sites (<10% of open solar radiation measurements), variation amongst destructive samples and logistical limits on the number of replicates collected.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/24248
Date06 April 2010
CreatorsGibos, Kelsy Ellen
ContributorsMartell, David Lee, Wotton, Brian Michael
Source SetsUniversity of Toronto
Languageen_ca
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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