Chapter 4

Tropical Forest Hydrology

Outline:

• Tropical versus Temperate climate and ecosystem conditions
• Definition of leaf area index (LAI)
• Interception processes
• Stemflow processes
• Canopy classification based on thoughfall regime
• Role of disturbance

Course Reader:

• Herwitz, S.R. 1986. Infiltration‐excess caused by Stemflow in a cyclone‐prone tropical rainforest. Earth Surf. Process. Landforms, 11: 401-412. doi: 10.1002/esp.3290110406

Other reading:

• none.

Related web links:

• Luquillo Experimental Forest LTER
• Leaf Area Index sites
  • Definition of LAI
  • NASA MODIS LAI satellite products
  • Plant canopy analyzer
• Normalized Difference Vegetation Index sites
  • Definition of NDVI
  • Measuring Vegetation with NDVI
  • NASA MODIS NDVI satellite products

Video Podcast: Tropical Forest Hydrology, part 1

This 40-minute presentation introduces a climatic zonation of Earth and works through two case studies of T, I, and F in a tropical forest at the scale of an individual tree.

• 640 x 480 (480p) format that balances speed and quality. (615 MB file)
• 1920 x 1280 (HD) format that provides larges size and best quality. (3.5 GB file)

CCM3 T170 Cloud and Precipitation Simulation

This 3.5-minute video shows a cloud and precipitation simulation of the Earth's coupled Ocean-Atmosphere-Land system. You can find more information about this video and higher resolution versions at this web link.

Video Podcast: Topical Forest Hydrology, part 2

This 21-minute presentation shows a set of studies of tropical throughfall from tree to regional scales, introduces the concept of “disturbance”, and presents the option of magnitudes and frequencies of geomorphic, hydrological, and biological tropical disturbances.

• 640 x 480 (480p) format that balances speed and quality. (284 MB file)
• 1920 x 1280 (HD) format that provides larges size and best quality. (1.6 GB file)

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