Determining forest litter interception in an area of the Cerrado sensu stricto

Abstract

Mainly due to the difficulty of directly measuring forest litter interception, many empirical studies on water balance in forests have disregarded this component. In order to assess the magnitude of forest litter interception in an area of the Cerrado s.s. , an estimate of the intercepted volume was made based on equations from two forest litter parameters (Cmax and Cmin) obtained from laboratory assays and monitoring the forest litter quantity. The estimates obtained from the litter interception for 2015 and 2016 were compared with the calculated values of evapotranspiration and internal precipitation of the study area. The total volume of litter interception corresponded on average to 13.4% of the internal precipitation and 8.5% of the total rainfall. Regarding the total annual evapotranspiration, the evaporation from the forest litter interception volume corresponded on average to 10.3% (122 mm) of this total. Forest litter interception for areas such as the Cerrado sensu stricto can have a significant impact on the water balance. This shows the need for directly measuring the forest litter interception, providing more accurate determinations of the rainfall partitioning in these forest areas.

Integrated Land-Use Systems Contribute to Restoring Water Cycles in the Brazilian Cerrado Biome

“…Further, evaporation from the topsoil has been found to be lower in the forest than in an open pasture [37], as the tree canopy strongly limits the radiation reaching the ground and the soil is covered with a layer of litter. A layer of litter, which was present in CER year-round, not only strongly limits evaporation [37] but also intercepts a substantial share of rain in the Cerrado [38]. Interception from Cerrado canopy was estimated to be around 20% of total precipitation [6], which in turn is directly contributing to higher evapotranspiration of Cerrado systems compared to other land-use types.…”

Serviços hidrológicos em região de transição Cerrado-Mata Atlântica

“…Os valores são inferiores aos encontrados para diferentes tipos de florestas na Mata Atlântica, onde a evapotranspiração atingiu de 80% a 89% da precipitação bruta (Saiter et al, 2016;Pereira et al 2010). Uma das razões para isto, poderia ser o fato deste estudo não quantificar a evaporação do solo (serapilheira e vegetação rasteira), já que em determinadas fitofisionomias, como as do bioma Cerrado, por exemplo, a interceptação do solo e a transpiração da vegetação rasteira podem representar parcela expressiva da precipitação total (Rosalem et al, 2018;Santana et al, 2010;Tsiko et al, 2012).…”