Rainfall interception of typical ecosystems in the Heihe River Basin: Based on high temporal resolution soil moisture data

doi:10.1007/s11442-019-1675-1

Abstract

Abstract:

Rainfall interception is of great significance to the fully utilization of rainfall in water limited areas. Until now, studies on rainfall partitioning process of typical ecosystems in Heihe River Basin, one of the most important inland river basins in China, is still insufficient. In this study, six typical ecosystems were selected, namely alpine meadow, coniferous forest, mountain steppe, desert, cultivated crop, and riparian forest, in Heihe River Basin for investigation of the rainfall interception characteristics and their influencing factors, including rainfall amount, duration, and intensity, based on the gross rainfall and high temporal resolution soil moisture data obtained from 12 automatic observation sites. The results show that the average interception amount and average interception rate of the six ecosystems are significantly different: alpine meadow 6.2 mm and 45.9%, coniferous forest 7.4 mm and 69.1%, mountain steppe 3.5 mm and 37.3%, desert 3.5 mm and 57.2%, cultivated crop 4.5 mm and 69.1%, and riparian forest 2.6 mm and 66.7%, respectively. The rainfall amount, duration, and intensity all had impact on the process of rainfall interception. Among these three factors, the impact of rainfall amount was most significant. The responses of these ecosystems to the rainfall characteristics were also different. Analyzing rainfall interception with high temporal resolution soil moisture data is proved to be a feasible method and need further development in the future.

Key words: rainfall interception, Heihe River Basin, soil moisture, rainfall utilization

YANG Chongyao, HUANG Yongmei, LI Engui, LI Zeqing. Rainfall interception of typical ecosystems in the Heihe River Basin: Based on high temporal resolution soil moisture data[J].Journal of Geographical Sciences, 2019, 29(9): 1527-1547.

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Ecosystems	Coverage (%)	Canopy height (m)	Mean annual precipitation (mm)	Mean annual temperature (℃)
Alpine meadow	90-100	0.03-0.09	411.7	-1.10±1.53
Coniferous forest	60-80	16-30	589.1	1.46±0.38
Mountain steppe	70-90	0.15-0.4	506.5	1.11±1.03
Desert	10-30	0.3-0.6	95.4	8.99±0.32
Cultivated crop	80-90	1.8-2.0	129.0	6.35±0.29
Riparian forest	30-50	10-20	40.2	9.76±0.49

No.	Site	Ecosystems	Dominant species	Altitude (m a.s.l.)	Observation period
1	Dadongshushan	Alpine meadow	Kobresia pygmaea	4101	2008
2	Jingyangling	Alpine meadow	Kobresia pygmaea	3750	2014-2016
3	Guantan	Coniferous forest	Picea crassifolia	2835	2008-2011
4	Maliantan	Mountain steppe	Iris lacteal var. chinensis + Stipa krylovii	2817	2008-2009
5	Pailugou	Mountain steppe	Stipa krylovii	2731	2006-2007
6	Hulugou	Mountain steppe	Stipa penicillata	2980	2011
7	Huazhaizi	Desert	Kalidium foliatum	1731	2013-2016
8	Bajitan	Desert	Reaumuria songarica	1562	2015
9	Daman	Cultivated crop	Zea mays	1556	2013-2016
10	Sidaoqiao	Riparian forest	Tamarix chinensis	873	2014-2016
11	Hunhelin	Riparian forest	Populus euphratica	874	2014-2016
12	Huangmo	Desert	Reaumuria songarica	1054	2015-2016

Ecosystems	Observed rainfall events	Average rainfall amount (mm)	Average rainfall intensity (mm/h)
Coniferous forest	45	14.7	1.0
Alpine meadow	148	9.8	1.0
Cultivated crop	46	7.2	0.9
Mountain steppe	38	13.3	0.9
Desert	88	7.6	1.2
Riparian forest	28	3.9	0.7

Rainfall event (mm)		Alpine meadow				Coniferous forest				Mountain steppe
		Frequency			RP^** (%)	Frequency		RP (%)		Frequency			RP (%)
		Times	TP^* (%)		RP^** (%)	Times	TP (%)	RP (%)		Times		TP (%)	RP (%)
0-2		8	5.52		0.83	0	0.00	0.00		1		2.63	0.38
2-5		44	30.34		10.35	3	9.68	2.13		4		10.53	3.10
5-10		44	30.34		21.27	10	32.26	14.87		15		39.47	23.61
10-15		23	15.86		19.07	7	22.58	17.21		7		18.42	17.57
15-20		12	8.28		14.30	4	12.90	14.18		4		10.53	13.84
20-30		10	6.90		16.92	2	6.45	9.50		4		10.53	19.68
30-40		2	1.38		11.22	4	12.90	27.90		2		5.26	13.90
40-50		2	1.38		6.03	1	3.23	14.20		1		2.63	7.92
Rainfall event (mm)	Desert					Riparian forest				Cultivated crop
	Frequency			RP (%)		Frequency			RP (%)	Frequency			RP (%)
	Times		TP (%)	RP (%)		Times	TP (%)		RP (%)	Times	TP (%)		RP (%)
0-2	5		5.68	1.07		9	32.14		13.96	2	4.35		1.09
2-5	28		31.82	14.01		12	42.86		41.31	14	30.43		15.95
5-10	33		37.50	34.39		7	25.00		44.74	23	50.00		50.80
10-15	14		15.91	25.18		0	0.00		0.00	3	6.52		9.65
15-20	5		5.68	12.66		0	0.00		0.00	3	6.52		15.83
20-30	2		2.27	8.07		0	0.00		0.00	1	2.17		6.67
30-40	1		1.14	4.62		0	0.00		0.00	0	0.00		0.00
40-50	0		0.00	0.00		0	0.00		0.00	0	0.00		0.00

Interception	Rainfall amount (mm)	Rainfall duration (h)	Rainfall intensity (mm/h)
Amount (mm)	0.604^**	0.222^**	0.200^**
Rate (%)	-0.420^**	-0.130^*	0.012