The temporal distribution of amazonian rainfall and its implications for forest interception

✍ Scribed by C. R. Lloyd

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 464 KB
• Volume: 116
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0035-9009
• DOI: 10.1002/qj.49711649612

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

A model for the temporal distribution of rainfall is derived from measurements made in central Amazonian rainforest. A contrast is made with a rainfall distribution model which has been used in a stand‐alone comparison of land‐surface sub‐models of two General Circulation Models (GCMs). In terms of the rainfall interception loss, it is shown that the central Amazonian model produces an overestimate of 35%, but is within the error bars of the measured interception loss, whereas the latter model overestimates the interception loss by more than 100%. Two other time distributions of rainfall from contrasting regions of the Amazon are derived from published data in order to investigate the possible interception variation due to rainfall pattern variability. the results illustrate the need for GCM modellers to monitor their synthesized rainfall regime against real data and to be aware of the sensitivity of the forest interception loss to rainfall distribution.