Nutrient Input Through Occult and Wet Deposition into a Subtropical Montane Cloud Forest

Abstract

Chemical composition of fog and rain water was studied during a 47-day experimental period. The differences between the fog and rain water were found to be significantly for most analyzed ions. H + , NH 4 + , NO 3 − , and SO 4 2− made up 85% of the total median ion concentration in fog and 84% in rain water. The total mean equivalent concentration was 15 times higher in the fog than in the rain water. The fog water samples were classified according to their air mass history. The analysis of the 120 h backward trajectory led to the identification of three advection regimes. Significant differences of ion concentrations between the respective classes were found. Air masses of class I travelled exclusively over the Pacific Ocean, class II were carried over the Philippines, and class III were advected from mainland China. The turbulent fog water deposition was determined by the means of the eddy covariance method. The total (turbulent plus gravitational) fog water fluxes ranged between +31.7 mg m −2 s −1 and −56.6 mg m −2 s −1 . Fog water droplets with mean diameters between 15 μm and 25 μm contributed most to the liquid water flux. The sample based nutrient input was calculated on the basis of the occult and wet deposition, and the concentrations of the simultaneously collected fog and rainwater samples, respectively. The nutrient input through wet deposition was about 13 times higher than through occult deposition.

Does canopy wetness matter? Evapotranspiration from a subtropical montane cloud forest in Taiwan

“…The interception of fog water onto the vegetation has been addressed because it not only serves as an additional water source (Bruijnzeel and Proctor, 1995) but also imports nutrients to the ecosystem (e.g. Heath, 2001;Carrillo et al, 2002;Beiderwieden et al, 2007;Chang et al, 2010). Most studies focused on the water budget, but a few recent investigations raised the ecological importance of leaf wetness as induced by the interception processes (e.g.…”

Isolating the Role of Surface Evapotranspiration on Moist Convection along the Eastern Flanks of the Tropical Andes Using a Quasi-Idealized Approach*

“…This implies that the surface ET associated with montane forests plays an active7 role in retaining cloudiness, and consequently in rainfall harvesting at high elevations(Barros 8 2013). Immersed in low clouds for additional water and nutrients through canopy interceptionBeiderwieden et al 2007), Andean cloud forests are more vulnerable to this process, since 10 without surface ET the LCL can rise by as much ~400 three anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions and comments. The first14 author benefited from the discussions on Noah and HRLDAS with Drs.…”

Distribution and structure of lotic macroinvertebrate communities and the influence of environmental factors in a tropical cloud forest, Cusuco National Park, Honduras

“…The presence of forestry has also been shown to exacerbate acidification (Kelly-Quinn et al, 1996;Dunford et al, 2012;Feeley et al, 2013) in temperate regions, in part driven by scavenging of atmospheric acid anions and also by organic acidity. The occult/horizontal precipitation characteristic of cloud forests such as Cusuco National Park commonly contains far higher concentrations of solutes than rain water (Beiderwieden et al, 2007). Considering Cusuco's proximity to the large industrial hub of San Pedro Sula this could potentially include the kinds of industrial pollutants associated with acidification.…”