Hydrological and erosion responses to man made and natural disturbances : insights from forested catchments in South central Chile Logging and large earthquakes are disturbances that may significantly affect hydrological and erosional processes and process rates although in decisively different ways. Despite numerous studies that have documented the impacts of both deforestation and earthquakes on water and sediment fluxes a number of details regarding the timing and type of de and reforestation; seismic impacts on subsurface water fluxes; or the overall geomorphic work involved have remained unresolved. The main objective of this thesis is to address these shortcomings and to better understand and compare the hydrological and erosional process responses to such natural and man made disturbances. To this end south central Chile provides an excellent natural laboratory owing to its high seismicity and the ongoing conversion of land into highly productive plantation forests. In this dissertation I combine paired catchment experiments data analysis techniques and physics based modelling to investigate: 1) the effect of plantation forests on water resources 2)…