Visualization and Analysis of Flow Patterns and Water Flow Simulations in Disturbed and Undisturbed Tropical Soils

The complexity of flow patterns and occurrence of preferential flow in soils depend upon spatial heterogeneity of the upper boundary condition, heterogeneous distribution of soil hydraulic parameters and soil structure (Flury et al. 1994; Kulli et al. 2003). In a tropical rainforest, the canopy transforms the spatially almost uniform rainfall to heterogeneous patterns of throughfall on soil surface. These patterns continue in the soil amplified by its own heterogeneity. More details on canopy interactions and water relations are given by Wilcke et al. (Chapter 12 in this volume).