Amounts of throughfall and lysimetric water in a sub-mountain beech forest in the Kremnické vrchy Mts. (West Carpathian Mts., Slovakia)

Abstract

The paper deals with throughfall and soil percolation in a sub-mountain beech forest situated at the Ecological Experimental Site (EES) Kremnické vrchy Mts. (the West Carpathian Mts., Slovakia). The research was conducted in 1988-2008. The throughfall was sampled at regular periods, both from the open plot (clear-cut) and from the plot with complete stocking, covered with a mature beech stand. The soil percolation was evaluated with soil lysimeters. In 1989 and 2004, the plots were treated with cutting - with the aim to reduce the current stocking. The average amount of throughfall was 772.2 mm in the open plot and 616.3 mm in the control. The amount of soil percolation decreased with increasing depth: from 398.9 mm to 103.8 mm in the control and from 488.8 mm (surface) through 169.9 mm (10 cm) to 188.8 mm (25 cm) in the open plot. The differences between the plots were statistically highly significant. No significant differences were found between the soil horizons.

Keywords

• throughfall
• lysimeter
• sub-mountain beech forest
• water balance