Impacts of Vegetation and Precipitation on Throughfall Heterogeneity in a Tropical Pre-Montane Transitional Cloud Forest uri icon

abstract

  • AbstractPrecipitation throughfall (TF) plays an important role in the water balance of tropical forests. This study used 164 gauges to quantify precipitation andTFvariability in a tropical premontane transitional cloud forest on the Caribbean slope of the Cordillera Tilarn, Costa Rica, to identify the ecological and meteorological drivers of this variability. DailyTFmeasurements were taken from 28 June to 17 July 2012 and 12 June to 16 July 2013, for a total of 39 precipitation events. The total meanTFwas 87.9 percent andTFat individual gauges ranged from 22.7 percent to 245.7 percent. Leaf area index (LAI) was calculated above each gauge using hemispheric photography for a mean studysiteLAIof 7.7. There was no statistically significant relationship betweenLAIandTF. However, the amount ofTFwas positively correlated with precipitation intensity, while the variability ofTFwas negatively correlated with precipitation intensity. Our calculations indicate that at least 61 gauges are required to obtain meanTFestimates with less than 5 percent error. This study demonstrates thatTFis highly spatially heterogeneous due to multiple compounding effects.

published proceedings

  • BIOTROPICA

altmetric score

  • 1.75

author list (cited authors)

  • Teale, N. G., Mahan, H., Bleakney, S., Berger, A., Shibley, N., Frauenfeld, O. W., ... Washington-Allen, R.

citation count

  • 20

complete list of authors

  • Teale, Natalie G||Mahan, Hayden||Bleakney, Sarah||Berger, Amelie||Shibley, Nicole||Frauenfeld, Oliver W||Quiring, Steven M||Rapp, Anita D||Roark, E Brendan||Washington-Allen, Robert

publication date

  • November 2014

publisher