Abstract
ABSTRACT Information on hydrology, and vegetation distribution is essential for the development of techniques and strategies to cope with droughts in semi-arid environments. The objective of this study was to evaluate the partitioning of gross rainfall into throughfall, stemflow, and interception loss in the Brazilian Northeastern Atlantic Forest, and its correlations with rainfall characteristics. The study was conducted in the Bica watershed, in Portalegre, state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. The work was carried out in 2017, with monitoring of the throughfall, stemflow, and interception loss in an area of 10 × 20 m. Total rainfall depths (TRD) and wind speed were measured, and the evapotranspiration (ET0) was estimated. Based on this information, the intensity (I), kinetic energy (KE) and intensity at intervals of 5, 10, 20, 30, 45, and 60 min of each rainfall event were measured. Twenty rainfall events occurred during the study period. The vegetation showed interception of 44.9%, throughfall of 52.9%, and stemflow of 2.2% of the total rainfall. Three principal components (PC) were formed in the PC Analysis, explaining more than 84% of the total variance. PC1, PC2, and PC3 encompassed variables related to rainfall energy to overcome the vegetation physical barrier, inflow and outflow, and variables dependent on the rainfall duration, respectively.
Highlights
Arid and semi-arid regions have constant problems due to water scarcity (Dunkerley, 2008a, b; Zhang et al, 2016), and increasingly prolonged droughts
The climate of the region is tropical rainy (Aw), according to the Köppen classification (EMPARN, 2017); the region is surrounded by Sertaneja Depressions; and considering the precipitation index, aridity index, and risk of droughts, the watershed is within the Brazilian semi-arid region (Brasil, 2017)
These interception loss (IL) were higher than those found in other studies in semi-arid regions, in which the mean interception ranged from 13.0% (Medeiros et al, 2009) to 41.8% (Silva, 2017)
Summary
Arid and semi-arid regions have constant problems due to water scarcity (Dunkerley, 2008a, b; Zhang et al, 2016), and increasingly prolonged droughts. Information on hydrology, and vegetation distribution is essential for the development of techniques and strategies to cope with droughts in semi-arid environments (Zhang et al, 2015; Ribeiro Filho et al, 2017). Rainfall interception by plants affects the water balance in the hydrological cycle, especially in forest areas in arid and semi-arid regions, where the water infiltrates into the soil or evaporates, and there is no underground water inflow (Dunkerley, 2008a; Linhoss & Siegert, 2016). Hydrological studies have shown some rainfall properties, besides the conventional parameters, that provide information for the understanding of hydrological processes in arid and semi-arid regions, such as surface runoff, and interception loss (Dunkerley, 2008a; Figueiredo et al, 2016; Zhang et al, 2016)
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