As we know, coppice species like Quercus sp create several stems per tree making them somewhat hard to estimate their hydrological processes accurately. Does anybody have any ideas as to how to do it?
Take a look at attached file to see a coppice tree.
You can use several stemflow channels converging into one big container.
Thank you Gautam,
Is this approach scientifically approved? Do you have any idea on throughfall sampling network of these trees?
Try the USGS manuals for such studies. it is there. other wise the is a study by the New Mexico Tree ring research unit.
If you are going to measure the stemflow, you have to do for all the tree trunks that have (in this case it seems a bush) having a container for each stem, as each branch has its own characteristics. Then you do the analysis stem by stem, and also add all flows for total. You can do any necessary analysis. I also think that it is necessary to include more trees in your measurements and analysis, at least ten trees.
Thank you very much Barradas,
Do you have any idea for throughfall sampling of this kind of forests? Both in small scale (individual trees) and stand scale?
To determine the minimum number of samples (a little tree is an example) you need to know the forest density and as homogeneous / heterogeneous is, and how similar / dissimilar from each tree (height, dbh, probably leaf area index etc.). But, it also depends on how many instruments you can have. You can carry out a preliminary experiment, say (as I said before) with ten trees and analyze how different are the stemflows of different samples and using a coefficient of variation and so, you can decide if you need more or less samples.
Dr. Barradas what if we have 9 samples to measure through fall in quercus forest in three plots, then result of 9 samples will is good enough.
Also does the findings vary within with different height, dbh leaf area index as you told. if that is the case then what is the best way to include all the variables and how many variables
As I mentioned before (although I mentioned ten samples), if these nine samples that you say you have and you have already data, you can perform an analysis by calculating the coefficient of variation (CV) and depending on its value you will be able to know if the number of samples is sufficient, for example perhaps a CV of 5% would be quite adequate and that would be for different plots and then the three plots together.
If you are not interested to relate throughfall eg, with leaf area index (LAI), dbh or any of the other components of the floristic structure, simply obtain samples at sites within the canopy, then I recommend a totally random design. Otherwise, sampling should be done according to these characteristics, especially considering LAI (the dhb is related to leaf area) and anything that intercepts precipitation, as the branches (branch density) as well as trees density. If you analyze in that way, you can get better results because just knowing LAI you can infer throughfall.
thanks sir
is there any contribution of through- fall in nutrient dynamics, if yes how it will be calculated. is there any relation between through - fall nutrient dynamics with soil nutrient and how we will calculate nutrient of through - fall in soil and its contribution
Hi
The throughfall contribution to nutrient dynamics depends on the characteristics of the forest or the concerned ecosystems o agricultural or any system. It is not so easy to know about this contribution until measure it. Measurement is relatively easy to make, since it is possible to take samples from the collected water from the throughfall and perform chemical analyzes of the nutrient in question.
Hi dear Ugur,
Yes, I know a little about it, but, it needs some requirements/instruments that you are not able easily access them here.
Thanks
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