Redistribution characteristics of atmospheric precipitation in different spatial levels of Guangzhou urban typical forests in southern China

Abstract

The aims of the present study were to determine the pH variation and chemical feature of atmospheric precipitation during the research period. We also investigated the redistribution characteristics of rainfall while passing through the canopy layer, leaf-litter layer and soil layer, successively to quantify the acid rain buffering capacity of these spatial levels in the evergreen broadleaved forest (EBF), deciduous broadleaved forest (DBF) and coniferous forest (CF) in Guangzhou urban area, China. Results showed that the rainfall was typically acidic, and the acid rain type in Guangzhou urban area is converted from sulfuric acid type to mixed type of sulfuric acid and nitric acid. The major ions from the canopy to the forest floor differed within the three forest types. However, the enrichment phenomenon of base cations in soil leachate in EBF and DBF implied that nutrient loss was more serious in the broadleaved forest than in the coniferous forest. Variability of ionic concentration and pH in the vertical sequence of different tree species showed that the net ion concentration variation index has a significant conic relationship with ne pH change rate. We also built an acid rain buffering index, which combines the neutralization and interception effects of vegetation to acid rainfall. The present results indicated that the three forest types in urban Guangzhou all have certain buffering capacity to acid rain, and following the order: DBF > EBF > CF. In the meanwhile, the forest canopy is the biggest acid rain buffer in urban Guangzhou, following by the soil.