Kauaʻi record · KCA-EP-0044
Rainfall interception
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About Rainfall interception
Capture of rainfall by vegetation before water reaches the soil surface.
Names and classification
- Other names
- rainfall interception
- Family
- Hydrology & Freshwater Flow
- Record type
- ecological_process
Habitat and ecology
- Ecological role
- Supports Atlas reasoning about ecosystem function, dependencies, threats, conservation leverage points and cross-module consequences.
Process and seasonal context
- Definition
- Capture of rainfall by vegetation before water reaches the soil surface.
- Drivers
- rainfall; fog; vegetation; soils; geology; extraction; climate
- Inputs
- rainfall; cloud water; stored water
- Outputs
- evapotranspiration; runoff; recharge; streamflow; groundwater discharge
- Spatial scales
- canopy → soil → aquifer → watershed → coast
- Temporal scales
- minutes → decades
- Validity and limits
- Context-specific; do not extrapolate across habitat, season, elevation, salinity or disturbance state without evidence.
Sources and further reading
- Groundwater Recharge in Hawaiʻi
- Effects of drought and cloud-water interception on groundwater recharge and wildfire hazard
- Climate and Management Effects on Soil Infiltration and Runoff in Hawaiian Forests
- Local to landscape-level controls of water fluxes through Hawaiian forests
- Cloud Water Interception in Hawaiʻi
- Effects of high-priority non-native plants on the water cycle