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Although erosional impacts of rainforest logging are well established, changes in hydrological dynamics have been less explored especially in the post-logging recovery phase following repeat-logging cycles and mature phase of oil palm plantation cycles. This study addresses this gap by comparing hydrological characteristics of five catchments in a steep land area of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo on a gradient of disturbance and recovery – twice-logged forest, 22 years recovery (LF2); multiple-logged forest, 8 years recovery (LF3); mature oil palm, 20 years old (OP); and two primary forests (PF and VJR) as controls. Each catchment was instrumented with water depth (converted to discharge), conductivity, temperature, and turbidity sensors, and a raingauge connected to a solar-powered datalogger recording data at 5-minute intervals from November 2011 to August 2013. Data were analysed via the flow-duration curve (FDC) supplemented by the runoff coefficient (RR) and coefficient of variation in discharge (QVAR) for aggregated characteristics, as well as via a combination of the Dunn's test and multiple-regression at the storm event scale for focused hydrological dynamics. Results show that OP is characterised by a relatively low RR (0.357) but with high responsiveness during storm events and very low baseflow (38.4% of total discharge). Discharge in the LF3 (RR = 0.796) is always the highest while having an intermediate level of responsiveness. LF2 with longer-term recovery shown a reduction in terms of discharge (RR = 0.640). Being the benchmark, the undisturbed forest (PF) has the most buffered storm response with the highest baseflow (67.9% of total discharge). Stormflow and baseflow are anomalously high and low respectively in the near-primary VJR catchment, but this probably reflects the shallow soils and short-stature rainforest associated with its igneous and metamorphic lithology. From a management aspect, although hydrological recovery is more advanced in the 22 years

Relatively few studies have so far investigated the hydrological impacts of urbanization in Mediterranean catchments, and particularly in peri-urban catchments experiencing relatively rapid and large changes in their land-use mosaic. This study uses data-based model simulations to investigate such impacts, with the Ribeira dos Covoes catchment in Portugal as a concrete Mediterranean peri-urban catchment example. We distinguish the impacts of urbanization from those of climatic change on the water flux partitioning and connectivity in the catchment over the period 1958-2013. Decrease in precipitation over this period has primarily driven decreases in annual runoff and actual evapotranspiration, while the urbanization development has primarily changed the relative flux partitioning and connectivity pattern in the catchment. The relative contribution of overland flow to annual and seasonal runoff has increased, keeping the absolute overland flow more or less intact, while the baseflow contribution to the stream network has decreased. Methodologically, the present simulation approach provides a relevant means for distinguishing main drivers of change in hydrological flux partitioning and connectivity under concurrent urbanization and climatic changes.

Long-term (21-30 years) erosional responses of rainforest terrain in the Upper Segama catchment, Sabah, to selective logging are assessed at slope, small and large catchment scales. In the 0.44 km 2 Baru catchment, slope erosion measurements over 1990-2010 and sediment fingerprinting indicate that sediment sources 21 years after logging in 1989 are mainly road-linked, including fresh landslips and gullying of scars and toe deposits of 1994-1996 landslides. Analysis and modelling of 5-15 min stream-suspended sediment and discharge data demonstrate a reduction in stormsediment response between 1996 and 2009, but not yet to pre-logging levels. An unmixing model using bed-sediment geochemical data indicates that 49 per cent of the 216 t km -2 a -1 2009 sediment yield comes from 10 per cent of its area affected by road-linked landslides. Fallout 210Pb and 137Cs values from a lateral bench core indicate that sedimentation rates in the 721 km 2 Upper Segama catchment less than doubled with initially highly selective, low-slope logging in the 1980s, but rose 7-13 times when steep terrain was logged in 1992-1993 and 1999-2000. The need to keep steeplands under forest is emphasized if landsliding associated with current and predicted rises in extreme rainstorm magnitude-frequency is to be reduced in scale.

[No abstract available]

Detailed information on post-logging sediment dynamics in tropical catchments is required for modelling downstream impacts on communities and ecosystems. Sediment tracing methods, which are potentially useful in extending to the large catchment scale and longer time scales, are tested in primary and selectively logged rainforest catchments of Sabah, Borneo. Selected nutrient (P and N) and trace metal (Ni and Zn) concentrations are shown to discriminate surface, shallow subsurface and deep subsurface sediment sources. Analysis of channel-stored fine-sediment samples and use of an unmixing model allow the relative importance of these vertical sediment sources to be estimated and erosion processes to be inferred for catchments of contrasting size.