High-resolution streamflow and weather data (2013-2019) for seven small coastal watersheds in the northeast Pacific coastal temperate rainforest, Canada

Abstract

Hydrometeorological observations of small watersheds of the northeast Pacific coastal temperate rainforest (NPCTR) of North America are important to understand land to ocean ecological connections and to provide the scientific basis for regional environmental management decisions. The Hakai Institute operates a densely networked and long-term hydrometeorological monitoring observatory that fills a spatial data gap in the remote and sparsely gauged outer coast of the NPCTR. Here we present the first 5 water years (October 2013-October 2019) of high-resolution streamflow and weather data from seven small (< 13 km2) coastal watersheds. Measuring rainfall and streamflow in remote and topographically complex rainforest environments is challenging; hence, advanced and novel automated measurement methods were used. These methods, specifically for streamflow measurement, allowed us to quantify uncertainty and identify key sources of error, which varied by gauging location. Average yearly rainfall was 3267 mm, resulting in 2317 mm of runoff and 0.1087 km3 of freshwater exports from all seven watersheds per year. However, rainfall and runoff were highly variable, depending on the location and elevation. The seven watersheds have rainfall-dominated (pluvial) streamflow regimes, streamflow responses are rapid, and most water exports are driven by high-intensity fall and winter storm events. The complete hourly and 5 min interval datasets can be accessed at 10.21966/J99C-9C14 (Korver et al., 2021), and accompanying watershed delineations with metrics can be found at 10.21966/1.15311 (Gonzalez Arriola et al., 2015).