The impact of selective commercial logging on stream hydrology, chemistry and sediment loads in the Ulu Segama rain forest, Sabah, Malaysia

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Abstract
Three stages of selective commercial logging in a 0.54 km 2 catchment in the Ulu Segama caused great changes in the output of sediment and water over a 27-month period from June 1988. The ratio of monthly suspended sediment yield from the logged catchment to that from a nearby undisturbed catchment changed from the order of 1:1 before disturbance; to 4:1 after a logging road had been built across the head of the catchment; to 5:1 after logging within 37 m of the road; and to 18:1 in the five months after logging of the remainder of the catchment. A year after logging had ceased the largest monthly sediment yields of the whole period were only 3.6 times those of the undisturbed catchment, indicating a degree of recovery. Sediment accumulated in the channel bed and on the narrow flood plain remained to be evacuated, and gullies on abandoned logging trails continued to supply sediment to the drainage system.

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