Forest floor interception
Encyclopedia
Forest floor interception is the part of the (net) precipitation or throughfall
that is temporarily stored in the top layer of the forest floor
and successively evaporated within a few hours or days during and after the rainfall event. The forest floor
can consist of bare soil, short vegetation (like grasses, mosses, creeping vegetation, etc.) or litter (i.e. leaves, twigs, or small branches).
Throughfall
In Hydrology, throughfall is the process which describes how wet leaves shed excess water onto the ground surface. These drops have an erosive power because they are larger than rain drops, however, if they travel a shorter distance their erosive power is reduced...
that is temporarily stored in the top layer of the forest floor
Forest floor
The forest floor, also called detritus, duff and the O horizon, is one of the most distinctive features of a forest ecosystem. It mainly consists of shed vegetative parts, such as leaves, branches, bark, and stems, existing in various stages of decomposition above the soil surface...
and successively evaporated within a few hours or days during and after the rainfall event. The forest floor
Forest floor
The forest floor, also called detritus, duff and the O horizon, is one of the most distinctive features of a forest ecosystem. It mainly consists of shed vegetative parts, such as leaves, branches, bark, and stems, existing in various stages of decomposition above the soil surface...
can consist of bare soil, short vegetation (like grasses, mosses, creeping vegetation, etc.) or litter (i.e. leaves, twigs, or small branches).
Further reading
- Gerrits, A.M.J., Savenije, H.H.G., Hoffmann, L. and Pfister, L. (2007): New technique to measure forest floor interception – an application in a beech forest in Luxembourg, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 11, 695-701.