Rainfall interception is one of the central processes in forest ecosystem water balances, as interception of canopy and forest floor (FF) can reach 20 and 50 %. Previous research focused on interception fluxes from the vegetation canopy not considering the forest floor.

A lysimeter setup is proposed to not only capture the forest floor storage capacity but quantify flux and storage of FF interception measuring the weight and drainage

With the measured data from the forest floor lysimeters, throughfall, drainage, and evapotranspiration can be derived. The data will allow to evaluate how much water gets lost as infiltration in the “litter-box” due to evapotranspiration and interception storage and the effects of different FF (beech-dominated vs. mixed or coniferous stand), layer thickness, and different O-horizons (Ol, Of, Oh) on the water storage capacity of FFs. Empirical data analysis and water balance calculations.

Lea Dedden, Heinke Paulsen, Markus Weiler

Markus Weiler markus.weiler@hydrology.uni-freiburg.de Tel. +49 (0)761 / 203-3530

Field and lab work, construction, data collection and analysis.

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