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Use of Lysimeters to Assess Water Balance Components in Grassland and Atlantic Forest in Southern Brazil

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Abstract

This study aimed to quantify the water balance components at a grassland and a forest site representative of the Atlantic Forest biome in southern Brazil using drainage lysimeters. Since it was not possible to place mature trees on the forest lysimeter, it was planted with young trees and understory vegetation. Data from this lysimeter and computations with the water balance and the Penman-Monteith equation were then used to assess the values of the water balance components for the mature forest.

Total precipitation during the study period was 2308 mm. In the forest environment, 46% thereof was intercepted by the canopy from where it later evaporated. Hence, much less rain reached the ground than under grassland. Runoff from both sites was <1% of precipitation and therefore not a significant factor in the water balance. Cumulative drainage amounted to 1136 mm from grassland: from the mature forest, it was estimated to be 389 mm. There were two reasons for this low value under forest: Interception prevented a lot of water from reaching the ground, and the actual evapotranspiration from the mature forest was much higher than from grassland (1231 mm compared to 1964 mm).

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to the Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (MCT), Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP), Fundo Setorial de Recursos Hídricos (CT-Hidro), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for the financial support. Our gratitude also goes to the Climasul project and scientific and technological cooperation between Brazil and Germany, which was funded by the International Bureau of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Brazil, funding number 01DN12055. Furthermore, thanks to the Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering, Graduate Program in Agricultural Engineering and Graduate Program in Civil Engineering of the Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil, for the support of this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Federal University of Pampa, Campus Caçapava do Sul, Av. Pedro Anunciação 111, Vila Batista, Caçapava do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul, 96570-000, Brazil

    Rafael Matias Feltrin

  2. Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering, Center of Technology, Federal University of Santa Maria, Avenida Roraima 1000, Camobi, Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, 97105-900, Brazil

    João Batista Dias de Paiva & Eloiza Maria Cauduro Dias de Paiva

  3. Department of Soil Physics, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Lysimeter Station, Falkenberg 55, 39615, Altmaerkische Wische, Germany

    Ralph Meissner & Holger Rupp

  4. Faculty of Natural Sciences III, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Julius-Kühn-Straße 23, 06112, Halle (Saale), Germany

    Heinz Borg

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  1. Rafael Matias Feltrin
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Correspondence to Rafael Matias Feltrin.

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Eloiza Maria Cauduro Dias de Paiva died before publication of this work was completed.

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Feltrin, R.M., de Paiva, J.B.D., de Paiva, E.M.C.D. et al. Use of Lysimeters to Assess Water Balance Components in Grassland and Atlantic Forest in Southern Brazil. Water Air Soil Pollut 228, 247 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-017-3423-4

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