Throughfall and its spatial variability in a temperate rainforest of simple structure

Abstract

There are few throughfall data from southern hemisphere closed-forest, and none from Tasmanian callidendrous cool-temperate rainforest, which has a simpler structure than most primary rainforests. We determined throughfall, measured its local spatial variation, and tested its relationships with rainfall, rainfall intensity, wind speed, canopy dryness, canopy cover, and other structural variables in a cool-temperate callidendrous rainforest in Tasmania. Eighty-two percent of the precipitation was measured as throughfall, which occurred after 2.3 mm of rain fell on dry canopies. The cumulative rainfall in 25 randomly located funnel rain gauges on the forest floor varied from 160 to 567 mm. Canopy cover and other structural variables did not predict the spatial pattern of throughfall. While throughfall in rainfall events was related to rainfall amount and intensity, wind speed did not affect throughfall as a percentage of rainfall. Percentages of throughfall to rainfall over 100 for many low rainfall events may indicate a contribution of fog drip to precipitation on the forest floor. The high local spatial variability in throughfall indicates the mean moisture conditions on the forest floor may not be a good indicator of the potential for localised fire damage.

Keywords:

• Callidendrous temperate rainforest
• fire
• hydrology
• precipitation throughfall
• Tasmania

Funding

This work was supported by the Tasmanian Fire Research Fund.