RAINFALL INTERCEPTION BY SELECTED PLANTS IN THE CHIHUAHUAN DESERT

Water budget modeling usually requires quantification of all possible processes of the hydrologic cycle. This includes rainfall interception . The purpose of this study was to estimate the potential amounts of w ater transferred back to the atmosphere from interception for some com mon plants found in the Chihuahuan desert. Fifty plants of many sizes representing 10 common species of the Chihuanhuan Desert were chosen f or evaluation. Plants were submerged in a 2 X 2 m tank filled with wat er. After submersion, the plants were weighed, and the difference in w eight was recorded as the maximum water storage capacity of the plant' s canopy. Plants were also measured for maximum and minimum crown diam eter (cm), height (cm), green weight (g) at time of submersion, and ov en-dry weight (g). The forb, grass, and shrub species had different va riables included in the prediction equations. Dry and green weight wer e the 2 variables which appear to have the strongest relationship with the amount of water intercepted for all species. Of the 7 grass speci es evaluated, dry and green weight were part of all equations, and hei ght was included in only 2 equations.