04‐Apr‐16

INTERCEPTION

Interception
 Before precipitation reaches the soil, it
must pass through whatever vegetation
cover is present. (In urban areas,
buildings and other structures act to
intercept precipitation.)
 Vegetation cover retains some of this
precipitation and returns it to the
atmosphere by evaporation and/or
sublimation ‐ this is interception

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Interception...........
First, the falling precipitation may
be intercepted by the vegetation in an
area.
It is typically either distributed as
runoff or evaporated back to the
atmosphere.
The leafy surface matter may also
intercept precipitation

http://www.weather.gov/iao/InternationalHydrologyCourseCD1
/johnson/wmo_2003/lectures/oct_2003_wmo_course.ppt

Interception…the point

• The point of the interception is that the

precipitation is temporarily stored before the
next process begins.
• The intercepted/stored precipitation may not
reach the ground to contribute to runoff.
• Interception may be referred to as a loss, i.e.
it does not contribute to runoff or soil moisture
• This is also true for snowfall which may
sublimate and leave the watershed!

http://www.weather.gov/iao/InternationalHydrologyCourseCD1
/johnson/wmo 2003/lectures/oct 2003 wmo course.ppt

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http://www.harbor2.umb.edu/zhou/egs295_files/lecture_27.pdf

Precipitation interception by a 
coniferous canopy
 Coniferous canopies intercept both rainfall and
snowfall ‐ this interception loss can be a significant
component of water balance.
 Studies of rainfall interception in coastal British
Columbia and elsewhere show that up to 30% of
total annual rainfall does not reach the ground
under a mature coniferous canopy.
 A similar percentage of total annual snowfall is
intercepted by mature conifers.

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Rainfall interception
 rain can fall directly through gaps in the canopy 
(throughfall), or it can hit the foliage and branches
 once the foliage has been completely wetted by the 
rain, droplets will begin to cascade down through 
the canopy
 water can drip off the canopy to the ground 
(throughfall) or can run down stems (stemflow)
 evaporative losses can occur from the canopy, or 
from vegetation at the forest floor (interception)

P Components:
P = precipitation
C = canopy interception
C F = forest floor
interception / Litter interception
T = throughfall
T S = stemflow

T Itotal = F + C
C = P - (T + S)

S
C

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 a forest canopy has a saturation capacity of

0.5 to 2.0 mm of water depending on the age
and structure of the stand
 water can be evaporated by advective energy
even during storms, so the capacity of the
canopy is constantly replenished
 throughfall and stemflow are monitored with
appropriate collectors, subtracted from
rainfall on an area basis to calculate
interception loss

Rain interception
 Spittlehouse (1998) (from Spittlehouse, D.L. 1998. Rainfall interception in 
young and mature conifer forests in British Columbia. In: Weather Data Requirements for 
Integrated Pest Management. 23rd Conference on Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. 
American Meteorological Society, Boston Mass. 171‐174.)

 interception loss is a function of storm size and the

age of the stand (i.e., tree size)
 immature forest (6‐10 metre trees) reaches a
maximum at about 14 mm for storms > 100 mm
 mature forest, interception loss maxes out at an
average of 25 mm for storms > 100 mm, but in
spring storms, interception loss was about twice
that for winter storms

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Rain and snow interception
 Studies show that interception is proportional to 
canopy density or canopy height for both rain and 
snow
 Generally, interception loss of snow is greater than 
that of rain for coastal sites
 interception for snow is as high as 50%
 interception for rain is as high as 30%
 I is different for mature and immature canopies due 
to different size and development of trees

Effect of canopy structure
 Deciduous vs. coniferous: interception is greater 
for coniferous than deciduous forests
 needles can hold more water than broad leaves due to 
greater surface area
 conifers maintain foliage year‐round
 Mature vs. immature:
 rain interception greater for mature forest
 snow interception is affected by stocking density as well 
as canopy structure in terms of tree form

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Leafy Matter also intercepts...

Very thick ground litter layers can hold as much as 0.5 inches!
http://www.weather.gov/iao/InternationalHydrologyCourseCD1
/johnson/wmo_2003/lectures/oct_2003_wmo_course.ppt

Is it a loss?
• Studies indicate interception can be 10-
40% of precipitation in some communities
• In dormant season, probably is a net loss
• In growing season, may be offset by
reduction in transpiration
• Due to wind turbulence in forests, a
greater loss than in grasslands where
interception is largely balanced by
decreased transpiration

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Water quality effects of interception

• Decreases energy of raindrop impact, thus
reducing erosion forces
• Chemistry of throughfall is different than
precipitation- dissolves dry deposition on
leaves and stems
• Hubbard Brook studies show much higher
concentrations of calcium, potassium,
sulfates, chlorides, organic carbon, and all
forms of nitrogen in throughfall

Water balance implications
 Forest harvesting always increases water available 
for runoff by decreasing interception
 this increased availability can be in the order of 30‐
50% for newly harvested coastal sites
 Increases in peak flows
 in rain dominated watersheds, or for spring storms, 
water yield and peak flow could be increased by 25‐
40% for a 100 mm storm

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 In snow dominated watersheds in coastal B.C., snow 
accumulation and average melt rates for harvested 
sites during the melt period can be up to twice that 
of uncut old growth forest.
 On a watershed scale, those potential increases are 
proportional to the proportion of the watershed 
logged
 e.g. 25% of watershed logged, logged areas 
experience 34% increase in snow catch, then there is 
8.5% more water available for runoff