Hydrometeorology of the Dhofar cloud forest and its implications for groundwater recharge

Abstract:

Cloud forests have the ability to harvest cloud water or horizontal precipitation in addition to rainfall and, through rainfall re-distribution, provide markedly different infiltration and therefore recharge behavior. Forest interception studies required to formulate interception processes and to quantify the recharge relevant net precipitation are, however, often only possible at point or experimental plot scale and limited to the studied tree species. Groundwater recharge, in contrast, is often linked to groundwater aquifer boundaries and thus is located at the other end of the spatial scale. To be able to utilize findings from ecohydrological site studies for regional groundwater studies we regionalize field site studies through cloud forest distribution and rainfall interpolation in a semi-arid, data scarce region heavily dependent on groundwater resources. Through different rainfall scenarios, based on regular precipitation and on cloud forest modified precipitation, for two mountainous groundwater recharge catchments we can show that even moderately forested catchments provide up to 1/3 more precipitation through cloud water.