1. GGR 413 Watershed Hydroecology
½ course
Wednesdays 1:00-3:00 pm, 2125 SS
Jing M. Chen
Department of Geography
University of Toronto
Office: Room 305, 45 St. George St.
Physical Geography Building
Consultation Time: Mondays 1-3 PM
Co-Instructor Dr. Mustapha El Maayar, Room 306, 45 St. George St.
This space is for references

2. Evaluation
2 assignments_______________ 40%
Mid-term exam______________ 20% Project report _______________ 40%
Late assignment reports will be penalized at 10% of the portion of the assignment for each day of delay, i.e., a multiplying factor of 0.9 will be used for 1-day delay, and 0.8 for 2-day delay, etc.

3. Reference Books and Papers
Chen, J. M., X. Chen and W. Ju, X. Geng Distributed hydrological model for mapping evapotranspiration using remote sensing inputs. J. Hydrology, 305:
Black, P. E., Watershed Hydrology. Prentice Hall. London , Toronto . ISBN X.
Band, L. E., P. Patterson, R. Nemani, S. W. Running, Forest ecosystem processes at the watershed scale: incorporating hillslope hydrology. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology , 63:
Matzner, E., Biogeochemistry of Forested Catchments in a Changing Environment: A German Case Study. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidenberg. ISBN

4. Definition of Hydrology
“Hydrology is the science dealing with the waters of the earth, their occurrence, distribution and circulation, their chemical and physical properties and their interaction with the environment”
Ward and Robinson, 2000

5. Definition of Ecology
“The scientific study of the interrelationships among organisms and between organisms, and between them and all aspects, living and non-living, of their environment”.
Ernst Heinrich Haeckel is usually credited with having coined the word ‘ecology’ in 1866
Oxford: A Dictionary of Ecology in Earth & Environmental Sciences

6. Definition of Hydroecology
A branch of ecology that emphasizes on the effects on hydrological processes on living and non-living organisms and their interrelationships in terrestrial ecosystems.
Definition of this course

7. TerrainLab-BEPS
1. TerrainLab: A distributed hydrological model (Chen et al., Journal of Hydrology), which is based on remote sensing inputs.
2. BEPS: Boreal Ecosystem Productivity Simulator, which simulates plant growth, carbon, water and energy fluxes using remote sensing inputs. (Chen et al., Ecological Modeling; Liu et al., 2003, Water Resources Research.

8. Global Water Cycle
Significance: represents the largest movement of matter at the Earth’s surface; associates with the global climate system; affects human activities (population distribution, industry, transportation, etc.)
Ward and Robinson (2000)

9. Water Table in a Hydrological System
Ward and Robinson (2000)

10. Soil Water Forces
Capillarity: surface tension at the interface between soil air and soil water
Adsorption: electrostatic forces in which the polar water molecules are attached to charged faces of the solids. They occur only very close to the surface of solids.
Osmosis: forces due to solutes in soil water. Saline water, for example, can have large osmosis that prevents plant roots from extracting the water.
Gravity: vertical forces exerted to water by gravity of the Earth.
Pressure: forces that increase below water table

11. Soil water potential
The potential energy of soil water relative to that of water in a standard state (elevation, purity, atmospheric pressure, temperature)
 is the total water potential
g is gravitational potential
p is pressure potential
o is osmotic potential

12. Water Potential What is the physical meaning of water potential?
It is energy per unit volume.
It has the same unit as pressure (bar, mb, Pascal)
Unit of mass: kg (or g)
Units of forces: kg m/s2
Units of pressure, i.e., force per unit area:
(kg m/s2)/m2= kg/(ms2)=Pascal
Units of energy (equivalent to force times distance):
J=kg m/s2  m = kg m2/s2
Units of energy per unit volume (pressure):
(kg m2/s2)/m3=kg/(ms2)