The partitioning of rain water into throughfall, stem¯ow and interception loss when passing through plant canopies depends on properties of the respective plant species, such as leaf area and branch angles. In heterogeneous vegetation, such as tropical forest or polycultural systems, the presence of dierent plant species may consequently result in a mosaic of situations with respect to quantity and quality of water inputs into the soil. As these processes in¯uence not only the water availability for the plants, but also water in®ltration and nutrient leaching, the understanding of plant eects on the repartitioning of rain water may help in the optimization of land use systems and management practices. We measured throughfall and stem¯ow in a perennial polyculture (multi-strata agroforestry), monocultures of peach palm (Bactris gasipaes) for fruit and for palmito, a monoculture of cupuacË u (Theobroma grandi¯orum), spontaneous fallow and primary forest during one year in central Amazonia, Brazil. The eect on rain water partitioning was measured separately for four useful tree species in the polyculture and for two tree species in the primary forest. Throughfall at two stem distances, and stem¯ow, diered signi®cantly between tree species, resulting in pronounced spatial patterns of water input into the soil in the polyculture system. For two tree species, peach palm for fruit (Bactris gasipaes) and Brazil nut trees (Bertholletia excelsa), the water input into the soil near the stem was signi®cantly higher than the open-area rainfall. This could lead to increased nutrient leaching when fertilizer is applied close to the stem of these trees. In the primary forest, such spatial patterns could also be detected, with signi®cantly higher water input near a palm (Oenocarpus bacaba) than near a dicotyledonous tree species (Eschweilera sp.). Interception losses were 6 . 4% in the polyculture, 13 . 9 and 12 . 3% in the peach palm monocultures for fruit and for palmito, respectively, 0 . 5% in the cupuacË u monoculture and 3 . 1% in the fallow. With more than 20% of the open-area rainfall, the highest stem¯ow contributions to the water input into the soil were measured in the palm monocultures and in the fallow.

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The mission of the JRC-IES is to provide scientific-technical support to the European Union's Policies for the protection and sustainable development of the European and global environment.

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Introduction The European Commission is supporting the development of the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD). This consists primarily of the ILCD Handbook and the ILCD Data Network. This paper gives an insight into the scientific positions of business, governments, consultants, academics, and others that were expressed at this public consultation workshop. Workshop focus The workshop focused on four of the topics of the main guidance documents of the ILCD Handbook: (1) general guidance on life cycle assessment (LCA); (2) guidance for generic and average life cycle inventory (LCI) data sets; (3) requirements for environmental impact assessment methods, models and indicators for LCA; and (4) review schemes for LCA.Workshop participation This consultation workshop was attended by more than 120 participants during the 4 days of the workshop. Representatives came from 23 countries, from both within and outside the European Union.Workshop structure Approximately half of the participants were from business associations or individual companies. Another 20% were governmental representatives.Others came predominantly from consultancies and academia. Results This public consultation workshop provided valuable inputs into the overall ILCD Handbook developments as well as for further development. This paper focuses on some of the main scientific issues that were raised.