Interceptação da Chuva: Uma Revisão com Ênfase no Monitoramento em Florestas Brasileiras

Abstract

The review of studies on rainfall interception in Brazil showed that these studies are concentrated in the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest, and information about this hydrological process in the other Brazilian biomes is scarce. In the Amazon, interception loss, throughfall, and stemflow are about 7.2—22.6%, 76.8—91%, and 0.6— 1.8% of gross rainfall, respectively. In the Atlantic Forest, interception loss, throughfall, and stemflow are about 8.4— 20.6%, 47.6—97.4%, and 0.2—3.3% of gross rainfall, respectively. In order to learn more about rainfall interception in Brazilian forests the present paper suggests: (i) quantification of the rainfall interception in forests where this type of study is not satisfactory; (ii) measurement of throughfall by using comparable densities of throughfall and rainfall gauges; (iii) measurement of throughfall and stemflow by using a similar time interval to that applied in the gross rainfall monitoring; (iv) monitoring rainfall interception in experimental catchments integrated to other hydrological process studies; (v) estimation of the parameters used for interception modeling; (vi) establishment of functions that relate interception to physical characteristics of vegetation