Determining forest litter interception in an area of the Cerrado sensu stricto

ABSTRACT Mainly due to the difficulty of directly measuring forest litter interception, many empirical studies on water balance in forests have disregarded this component. In order to assess the magnitude of forest litter interception in an area of the Cerrado s.s. , an estimate of the intercepted volume was made based on equations from two forest litter parameters (Cmax and Cmin) obtained from laboratory assays and monitoring the forest litter quantity. The estimates obtained from the litter interception for 2015 and 2016 were compared with the calculated values of evapotranspiration and internal precipitation of the study area. The total volume of litter interception corresponded on average to 13.4% of the internal precipitation and 8.5% of the total rainfall. Regarding the total annual evapotranspiration, the evaporation from the forest litter interception volume corresponded on average to 10.3% (122 mm) of this total. Forest litter interception for areas such as the Cerrado sensu stricto can have a significant impact on the water balance. This shows the need for directly measuring the forest litter interception, providing more accurate determinations of the rainfall partitioning in these forest areas.