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Interception of tropical rain forest - performance of a canopy water balance model

Reference Type
Journal, Research (Article)

"The throughfall in dry evergreen forest and mixed forest in central Guyana (South America) was measured over a period of 17 months using both a moving and a fixed stratified random sampling scheme. The throughfall, stemflow and canopy cover fractions of the two forest types were not significantly different. The data set was used to test the canopy water balance model designed by Rutter et al. (1971). Compared with both forest types, the model underestimated the total interception fraction: 13.4% for the Rutter model as opposed to 17.3 and 16.0% of the rainfall for dry evergreen forest and mixed forest. This was caused by a severe underestimation of interception on days with a rainfall of more than approximately 10 mm. Compared with the rainfall frequency distribution of the area, accurate model results were obtained for 20% of the rainfall only. Sensitivity analysis shows that an increase of saturation storage capacity or potential evaporation by 150% will give an acceptable accumulated interception, but that this is caused by large overestimation on days with a low amount of rainfall. The Rutter model was extended with a layered representation of the canopy, with simulation of the microclimate, but using basically the same input data. This resulted in a higher total interception fraction (16.3% of the rainfall), especially in the range 5-20 mm/day, because of a larger storage at the start of each rainstorm and an increased surface available for evaporation." [abstract]

Authors
V.G. Jetten
Date Published
1996
Journal/Conference
Hydrological Processes
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Publisher Location
Chichester, Sussex ENG (UK)
ISBN/ISSN
0885-6087
Volume/Issue/Number
10//5
Start Page
671
End Page
685
Pages
15
Sub-Topics
Canopy, Hydrology, Modeling (other), Stormwater Management, Water Quality/Quantity, Watershed Management
State(s)/Region(s)
South America
Keywords
Interception, Interception modelling, Rain forest, Water balance
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