Throughfall and Interception Loss in Relation to Different Canopy Levels of Coffee Agroforestry Systems

The partitioning of gross rainfall into throughfall and canopy interception loss was studied in two different shade levels of coffee agroforests in the Pachat village of Kodagu. Data on meteorological characters was collected using automatic weather station on a half-hourly basis during study. Throughfall and interception loss in each system were checked for correlations with gross rainfall characteristics. Rainfall was mainly distributed between July and October i.e., the monsoon period. Throughfall ranged from 84 91% and interception loss ranged from 8.9 - 15.7% of gross rainfall in the high and low shade levels of coffee agroforestry systems studied and varied with gross rainfall in both systems. The throughfall was significantly higher and interception loss was significantly lower in high shade level system compared to low shade level system. The stand structures of the agroforestry vary considerably and influenced the rainfall partitioning, hence may be the differences.