Characteristics of canopy interception and its simulation with a revised Gash model for a larch plantation in the Liupan Mountains, China

Abstract

Canopy interception is a significant proportion of incident rainfall and evapotranspiration of forest ecosystems. Hence, identifying its magnitude is vital for studies of eco-hydrological processes and hydrological impact evaluation. In this study, throughfall, stemflow and interception were measured in a pure Larix principis-rupprechtii Mayr. (larch) plantation in the Liupan Mountains of northwestern China during the growing season (May–October) of 2015, and simulated using a revised Gash model. During the study period, the total precipitation was 499.0 mm; corresponding total throughfall, stemflow and canopy interception were 410.3, 2.0 and 86.7 mm, accounting for 82.2, 0.4 and 17.4% of the total precipitation, respectively. With increasing rainfall, the canopy interception ratio of individual rainfall events decreased initially and then tended to stabilize. Within the study period, the simulated total canopy interception, throughfall and stemflow were 2.2 mm lower, 2.5 mm higher and 0.3 mm lower than their measured values, with a relative error of 2.5, 0.6 and 15.0%, respectively. As quantified by the model, canopy interception loss (79%) mainly consisted of interception caused by canopy adsorption, while the proportions of additional interception and trunk interception were small. The revised Gash model was highly sensitive to the parameter of canopy storage capacity, followed by the parameters of canopy density and mean rainfall intensity, but less sensitive to the parameters of mean evaporation rate, trunk storage capacity, and stemflow ratio. The revised Gash model satisfactorily simulated the total canopy interception of the larch plantation within the growing season but was less accurate for some individual rainfall events, indicating that some flaws exist in the model structure. Further measures to improve the model’s ability in simulating the interception of individual rainfall events were suggested.