Experimental partitioning of rainfall into throughfall, stemflow and interception loss by Haloxylon ammodendron, a dominant sand-stabilizing shrub in northwestern China

Wenyue Zhao; Xibin Ji; Bowen Jin; Zeyu Du; Jinglin Zhang; Dandan Jiao; Liwen Zhao

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159928

Experimental partitioning of rainfall into throughfall, stemflow and interception loss by Haloxylon ammodendron, a dominant sand-stabilizing shrub in northwestern China

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Feb 1;858(Pt 2):159928. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159928. Epub 2022 Nov 5.

Authors

Wenyue Zhao¹, Xibin Ji², Bowen Jin³, Zeyu Du¹, Jinglin Zhang¹, Dandan Jiao⁴, Liwen Zhao³

Affiliations

¹ Linze Inland River Basin Research Station, Key Laboratory of Ecohydrology and Watershed Science, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resource, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China.
² Linze Inland River Basin Research Station, Key Laboratory of Ecohydrology and Watershed Science, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resource, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China. Electronic address: xuanzhij@ns.lzb.ac.cn.
³ Linze Inland River Basin Research Station, Key Laboratory of Ecohydrology and Watershed Science, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resource, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.

PMID: 36343808
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159928

Abstract

Rainfall partitioning by the vegetation canopy represents a significant component of the local hydrological cycle by reshaping the amount and spatial distribution of rainfall. Measuring the components of rainfall partitioning, however, has been a challenging task due to laborious- and time-consuming field experiments. In this study, to probe the influences of long-term afforestation on dynamic patterns of rainfall partitioning, the dominant sand-stabilizing shrub Haloxylon ammodendron at three different ages was selected for field measurements during the 2020-2021 growing season. The throughfall percentage for young H. ammodendron (YH, 75.9 %) was significantly higher than that for middle-aged H. ammodendron (MAH, 63.4 %) and mature H. ammodendron (MH, 62.4 %) (p < 0.05 for all cases). However, the interception loss percentage of YH (22.3 %) was significantly lower than that for MAH (35.0 %) and MH (36.5 %) (p < 0.05 for all cases). No significant difference was found for stemflow percentage among YH (1.8 %), MAH (1.5 %) and MH (1.1 %). Smaller rainfall events contributed to a higher interception loss percentage and a lower net rainfall percentage for all ages. Both throughfall and stemflow percentage first showed increasing trends and then tended to be stable with increasing rainfall amount and duration, whereas interception loss percentage showed the opposite patterns. Rainfall partitioning was significantly correlated with the plant area index, stem basal area and canopy height (p < 0.05 for all cases), which may account for significant differences in rainfall partitioning patterns, as all shrubs experienced the same weather conditions. The average funneling ratio was 56.6, 26.7 and 17.9 for YH, MAH and MH, respectively. These results suggested that H. ammodendron afforestation can have a significant impact on rainfall partitioning by reducing net rainfall reaching the soil and may have some implications for local water budget and ecosystem management in oasis-desert ecotones.

Keywords: Dryland ecosystems; Haloxylon ammodendron; Interception loss; Sparse shrub; Stemflow; Throughfall.

MeSH terms

China
Ecosystem*
Rain*
Sand
Water Movements

Substances

Sand