Soil temperature regime in a forested Appalachian watershed

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Abstract
Daily and seasonal variations in soil temperature at various topographic positions in a forested catchment are compared. The experimental sites were designed as ridgetop, north-facing lower slope, south-facing lower slope, and southwest-facing slope. On sunny days during the growing season, the surface temperature had the greatest amplitude (7.8 °C) at the south-facing upper slope and the smallest amplitude (4.0 °C) at the north-facing slope; the remaining sites were intermediate. The maximum surface temperature was observed in the afternoon at all sites. With increasing depth, daily soil temperature ranges diminished and, below 10 cm depth, they were less than 1 °C. Under overcast conditions, daily soil temperature fluctations lessened. For individual months, the mean temperatures of the 2–30 cm soil layer generally varied among all sites by less than 1 °C and never the difference exceeded 1.8 °C. The surface temperature variations and their differences among sites appear to be the most distinguished feature of the soil thermal regime and they seem to be aspect related.

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