The Atlantic rainforest is one of the most endangered ecosystems of our planet, this area presents only 8% of its original
distribution, needs special attention to improve its conservation goals. This study aimed to compare the water retention
capacity of the canopy in two watersheds an entirely covered by Atlantic Forest (Rain Forest), located in “Parque
Estadual da Serra do Mar” and other covered with
Eucalyptus urophylla
x
Eucalyptus grandis
in an adjacent area.
Monitoring was carried out in the years of 2008 and 2009 through rain gauges and the water retention of the forest canopy
was evaluated from linear regressions between precipitation (PR) and internal elevation (TR). The results showed that,
with the exception of interception in the “dry” season that presented the lowest coefficients of determination (R2), being
77% in the eucalypt and 82% in the Atlantic Forest, the variables presented a good fit with the incident precipitation,
with higher coefficients of 90%. The Atlantic Forest showed higher retention capacity of water in relation to
Eucalyptus,
where rainfall lower than 5 mm in the Atlantic Forest and 0.78mm in eucalypt are fully intercepted by the forest canopy
and the wet period presented the greatest water retention capacity, probably due to the greater vegetation regeneration
at this time, since in the dry period the leaves fall can decrease the retention.
