Experiment

Influence of canopy architecture

on stem flow at Al-Jabr Islamic
School
 Background Research
As we know stream of water is uncontrolled its because of surface
water in abnormal quantity, As a result from heavy falls of rainwater
runoff at school. Different types of tree canopy architectures have a
vital role to manage and break the rainfall to prevent the flood. For
one thing, the tree canopy can intercept some rain, which can then
evaporate before it even reaches the ground. But this only reduces the
effective rainfall by a few millimeters, and when low temperatures
reduce evaporation and deciduous trees have shed their leaves.
Weve all taken shelter under a trees canopy during a storm, grateful
for its ability to intercept rain. You may not realize this, but rainwater
that passes through tree canopies is modified both volumetrically and
chemically in processes that have been relatively well studied in
forests. That modification, which encompasses several different
components, is what makes being under tree a good place to stay dry.
 Questions
Can we really prevent floods by planting more trees?
What is the effect of tree species on canopy rainfall perception?
How does stem flow drained from the braches and leaves runs down towards stem of
tree?
How the stem dripping influenced by bark roughness?
How do we measure canopy rainfall interception ? Why is affected of stream water
run off?
What are the factors of infiltration on the rainfall amount?
What is the different of three species to generate stem flow according to the tree,
tree size, intensity of rainfall, rough-barked trees and size of leaves?
 Hypothesis
I think, the effective ways to prevent the flood by planting the plant/
species of tree which is it can manage water balance in the ecosystem.
The rainfall is termed as interception loss which is held by the process
of evaporation, through fall and stem flow.
I think, proportion of the rainfall depends on climate factors include
rainfall amount, intensity, duration, wind speed, canopy structure, leaf
sizes, leaf branch properties.
Stems flow volume depends on tree species, crown size, leaf shape,
orientation, branch angle, and bark roughness.
 Materials of experiment:
Three trees each of Damar (Agathi Alba) which is branch diameter 26 cm, Pine
(Pine Mercussii) which is diameter 52 cm , Banana tree ( Musa paradisica)
which is branch diameter 39 cm. trees having healthy canopy were selected for
the experiment. These three tree species were chosen due to their discriminant
canopy architecture, leaf size and branch orientation.
3 containers
3 pipe with a long size 1 meter.
Tape, and measuring tape
Measuring cup
Infra board/collar made of plastic funnel was used to trap and measure stem flow
coming down the tree.
 Procedures:
The size of the funnel was selected based on the diameter of the
trees, each funnel was cut to fit it to the tree.
The contact area between the tree and funnel was sealed with
the help of adhesive and cello tape.
Before fitting the funnel to the tree, a hole was made at the
bottom of the cut of the funnel and the other to a clean plastic
container for collection the stem flow water.
Shows in the picture, the instrumentation for measuring the
stem flow.
 Result:

Rainfall events were studied April 8th to 10th April 2017.

Banana Tree Pine Tree Damar tree
800 ml 150 ml 550 ml
 Conclusion
In this study we compared the stem flow volume collected.
The differences happened due to the favorable branching
pattern and leaf shape.
Findings of the present study also show that stem flow
plays an important role in nutrient cycling process by
returning nutrients back to the soil.
The generation of higher stem flow volume in case of pine
tree is due to concave orientation of branches and leaves.
Result showed that a significant amount of nutrients
leached from Pine, Damar, and Banana tree through stem
flow process.