Abstract
This study was carried out in an Atlantic forest remnant in Southeastern Brazil and aimed to spatially model the soil water content (SWC) and net precipitation (NP) on a monthly time scale and to assess the spatial behavior of these hydrological variables in the different seasons. NP is defined by summing throughfall and stemflow, which have been collected after each rain event and accumulated monthly. Soil moisture measurements were carried out monthly up to a depth of 1.00 m and then integrated to obtain the SWC. The exponential semivariogram model was fitted for both hydrological variables, and the goodness-of-fit was assessed by a cross-validation procedure, spatial dependence degree (SDD) and spatial dependence index (SDI). This model provided adequate performance for SWC and NP mapping according to the cross-validation statistics. Based on the SDD, both variables have been classified as a ‘strong spatial dependence structure’. Nevertheless, when the SDI was assessed, NP showed less spatial dependence, while the SWC maintained almost the same performance. Kriging maps pictured the regional climate seasonality due to higher values of both variables in spring and summer than in autumn and winter seasons. However, correlations between NP and SWC are not expressive in the studied period.
Highlights
The objectives of this study were (i) to apply geostatistical tools to study the spatial distribution of soil water content (SWC) and net precipitation (NP) in an Atlantic forest remnant located in southeastern Brazil and (ii) to investigate possible correlations between these variables of the hydrological cycle in a forest site and seek a better understanding of the forest interference in these variables
The lack of a trend in the SWC and NP datasets could be confirmed through data exploratory analyses
Mello, and Silva (2010) studied the spatial variability of soil moisture in the layer of 0 - 0.20 m in an Atlantic rainforest and found isotropic semivariograms
Summary
The hydrological cycle is the set of stages and processes that water is subject to in nature, encompassing different forms of precipitation, infiltration, recharge of aquifers, generation of surface runoff and evapotranspiration. Among these factors, the response of each phase of the water cycle is closely related to the different land use, especially in forest ecosystems (Sari, Paiva, & Paiva, 2016). The set formed by the throughfall and the stemflow is known as net precipitation In this sense, several studies have focused on the measurement and modeling of rainfall interception in forest environments (Sato, Avelar, & Netto, 2011; Ávila et al, 2014; Sari et al, 2016; Junqueira Junior et al, 2019).
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