Hydrology and Earth System Sciences www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net 1027-5606 1607-7938 11 2 2007 10.5194/hess-11-695-2007 http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/11/695/2007/ http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/11/695/2007/hess-11-695-2007.html http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/11/695/2007/hess-11-695-2007.pdf 695 701 2007-01-17 New technique to measure forest floor interception – an application in a beech forest in Luxembourg A. M. J. Gerrits a.m.j.gerrits@tudelft.nl H. H. G. Savenije L. Hoffmann L. Pfister Water Resources Section, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, P.O. Box 5048, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands Department Environment and Agro-biotechnologies, Centre de Recherche Public – Gabriel Lippmann, 41, rue du Brill, L-4422 Belvaux, Luxembourg In hydrological models, evaporation from interception is often disregarded, combined with transpiration, or taken as a fixed percentage of rainfall. In general interception is not considered to be a significant process in rainfall-runoff modelling. However, it appears that on average interception can amount to 20–50% of the precipitation. Therefore, knowledge about the process of interception is important. Traditional research on interception mainly focuses on canopy interception and almost completely denies forest floor interception, although this is an important mechanism that precedes infiltration or runoff. Forest floor interception consists partly of interception by dry soil, partly of interception by short vegetation (mosses, grasses and creeping vegetation) and partly of interception by litter. This research project concentrates on litter interception: to measure its quantities at point scale and subsequently to upscale it to that of a hydrotope. A special measuring device has been developed, which consists of a permeable upper basin filled with forest floor, and a watertight lower basin. Both are weighed continuously. 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