The role of the mahogany tree (Swietenia macrophylla King) on quantity and quality of water that fall below the canopy

Abstract

Mahogany trees (Swietenia macrophylla) are often planted in urban forests area. This shady-crowned tree has a role in controlling the quantity and quality of rainwater that falls to the ground. Mahogany trees also affect the quality of rainwater through interception, fall, and stemflow. The purpose of this research was to determine the impact of the interception process, such as throughfall and stemflow, on changes in rainwater quality of the mahogany tree. The Data that needed to be measured were tree dimension, rainfall interception, and rainwater quality. Interception measurement was performed by calculating the number of throughfall and stemflow in one month-measurement. While the measurement of rainwater quality was measured once in the laboratory. These water quality measurements include Electrical Conductivity (EC), hardness, the content of Elements Ca, Mg, Na and K, and pH concentrations. The results based on the total area of the crown showed that mahogany had an interception value of 18.088%. In the throughfall measurement, the mahogany has a throughfall of 81.799%, while the amount of the stemflow is only 0.113%. The correlation of interception values, throughfall, and stemflow with rainfall are in general positively correlated. That means the higher rainfall water will increase the number of interception, throughfall, and stemflow. The results on water quality measurement explain that Ec value in rainwater interception was increased compared to water produced from rainfall in mahogany trees. It also has the same condition in hardness measurement. In pH measurements, the interception of rainwater has less pH when compared to direct rainfall water. In addition, the content of Elements Ca, Mg, K, and Na in Stemflow and Throughfall water have more numbers than rainfall itself.