Track 2-4-1: Water Harvesting, Watershed Management, Water Use Efficiency and Eco-Hydrology

Description

Rainfall (R) falling on any vegetation can be partitioned in Stemflow (SF), Throughfall (TF) and Interception loss (I). Stemflow is that part of rainfall which flows down to the ground via leaves, stem, branches and trunk (above ground vegetative part). Throughfall is the part of rainfall which drips down through the canopy to the ground. Interception is the part of the rainfall after absorption by different parts of tree which remains with the above ground vegetative part and later on lost by the process of evaporation. Thus, SF and TF are combined termed as net rainfall and flow as runoff after meeting the infiltration demand of the soil. The water balance equation of rainfall falling on vegetation is written as, R=SF+TF+I.

In wooded ecosystem, SF and TF are most important which account about 70-90% of the incident rainfall and rest goes to interception loss (Bryant et al., 2005). Proportion of the rainfall partitioned components depends on different climatic factors and Plant canopy architecture properties. These climatic factors include rainfall amount, intensity, duration, wind speed and its temporal distribution whereas canopy properties are canopy structure, leaf area index (LAI), leaf branch properties etc. Levia et al. (2010) showed that SF volume depends on tree species, crown size, leaf shape and orientation, branch angle, and bark roughness. Throughfall yield depends on canopy density (Bouten et al., 1992), rainfall amount and intensity (Weiqing et al., 2007), wind direction (Herwitz and Slye, 1995) etc.

In this study, effect of six treatments i.e. vegetative barrier of Panicum maximum, staggered trenches, stone mulch, guava+pasture, sole guava and sole pasture for conserving in-situ soil moisture were studied in guava based hortipasture system for optimizing and sustaining guava and pasture production. The source of water for conserving in-situ into soil by those techniques is the net rainfall from guava tree and overland runoff. The objective of the paper is to estimate the amount of water that can be conserved directly in soil coming from net rainfall and study the effectiveness of different in-situ moisture conservation techniques in conserving in-situ soil moisture.

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Estimation of Net Rainfall through Guava Tree for In-Situ Soil Moisture Conservation in Guava Based Hortipasture System in Central India

Rainfall (R) falling on any vegetation can be partitioned in Stemflow (SF), Throughfall (TF) and Interception loss (I). Stemflow is that part of rainfall which flows down to the ground via leaves, stem, branches and trunk (above ground vegetative part). Throughfall is the part of rainfall which drips down through the canopy to the ground. Interception is the part of the rainfall after absorption by different parts of tree which remains with the above ground vegetative part and later on lost by the process of evaporation. Thus, SF and TF are combined termed as net rainfall and flow as runoff after meeting the infiltration demand of the soil. The water balance equation of rainfall falling on vegetation is written as, R=SF+TF+I.

In wooded ecosystem, SF and TF are most important which account about 70-90% of the incident rainfall and rest goes to interception loss (Bryant et al., 2005). Proportion of the rainfall partitioned components depends on different climatic factors and Plant canopy architecture properties. These climatic factors include rainfall amount, intensity, duration, wind speed and its temporal distribution whereas canopy properties are canopy structure, leaf area index (LAI), leaf branch properties etc. Levia et al. (2010) showed that SF volume depends on tree species, crown size, leaf shape and orientation, branch angle, and bark roughness. Throughfall yield depends on canopy density (Bouten et al., 1992), rainfall amount and intensity (Weiqing et al., 2007), wind direction (Herwitz and Slye, 1995) etc.

In this study, effect of six treatments i.e. vegetative barrier of Panicum maximum, staggered trenches, stone mulch, guava+pasture, sole guava and sole pasture for conserving in-situ soil moisture were studied in guava based hortipasture system for optimizing and sustaining guava and pasture production. The source of water for conserving in-situ into soil by those techniques is the net rainfall from guava tree and overland runoff. The objective of the paper is to estimate the amount of water that can be conserved directly in soil coming from net rainfall and study the effectiveness of different in-situ moisture conservation techniques in conserving in-situ soil moisture.