Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-19-2025
Publication Title
Water Resources Research
Disciplines
Biology | Forest Biology
Abstract
Assessing rainfall interception (I-R) is a critical yet uncertain aspect in hydrological cycle, particularly the quantification of relative contributions from leaves and woody components (e.g., branches, stems, and trunks) to I-R. Nevertheless, the role of woody components in I-R estimation remains largely unexplored and thereby has been constantly overlooked. This study addressed this challenge and refined the widely-used Gash model to distinguish woody interception (I-W) from leaf interception (I-L). We incorporated the spatial variability of vegetation traits alongside satellite data in 2019 into the refined model, and spanned China's major forest types. The refined model showed a strong agreement with field observations in estimating I-R (r = 0.83, p < 0.01) and the fraction of rainfall interception to precipitation (I-R/P) (r = 0.77, p < 0.01). The average I-R was 112.4 +/- 32.1 mm (with I-R/P of 14.7 +/- 8.2%) in 2019, of which I-L accounted for 77.9% and I-W contributed the rest 22.1%. Among different forest types, I-W/I-R exhibited the highest values in deciduous needle-leaf forests (DNF, mean: 51.9%) but lowest values in evergreen broad-leaf (EBF, mean: 14.3%). In addition, I-W/I-R was larger in the non-growing season than that of growing season in some forest types, such as exceeding 60% in winter for DNF, indicating that more rainwater was intercepted by woody components than by leaves. Our study underscores the substantial role of woody components in I-R, particularly in needle-leaf forests, that are prevalent globally, a finding that can provide novel methods and valuable parameters for global hydrological models to improve the accuracy of model predictions.
DOI
10.1029/2025WR041189
Version
Publisher's PDF
Recommended Citation
Jiang, Z.‐Y., He, W., Chen, Z.‐A., Van Stan, J. T., Guo, L., Yuan, C., et al. (2025). Substantial contribution of woody components to rainfall interception in Chinese forests: Insights from a refined analytical model. Water Resources Research, 61, e2025WR041189. https:// doi.org/10.1029/2025WR041189
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Volume
61
Issue
12
