afforestations impact of pinus eldarica and cupressus arizonica on rainfall interception in a semiarid climate zone

the main goal of this study was to compare of rainfall interception (i) by pinus eldarica and cupressus arizonica plantations afforested in the chitgar forest park in a semiarid climate zone of iran. from the september 2012 to september 2013, gross rainfall (gr) and throughfall (tf) were collected through 10 and 50 rain-gauges, respectively. i was calculated as the difference between gr and tf. during the measurement period, fifty five rainfall events with the cumulative value of 262.5 mm were recorded. over the study period, i was calculated 80.0 mm (30.5 %), and 60.3 mm (23.0 %) for p. eldarica and c. arizonica, respectively. the percents of the interception (i:gr)% were estimated 46.8% and 37.8%, respectively. significant positive correlations were observed between i and gr by p. eldarica (i = 0.135gr + 0.811; r = 0.663), and c. arizonica (i = 0.100gr + 0.620; r = 0.757) afforestations (p < 0.05). t-test suggested that there were significant differences between the (i:gr)% values at the small and very small storms classes (0.1-5.0 mm) between p. eldarica and c. arizonica (p < 0.01). the greater interception loss by p. eldarica proposed that in this climate zone, it is preferable to plant c. arizonic relative to p. eldarica trees.