Leo Heikurainen

Use of ground water table fluctuations for measuring evapotranspiration

Heikurainen L. (1963). Use of ground water table fluctuations for measuring evapotranspiration. Acta Forestalia Fennica vol. 76 no. 5 article id 7145. https://doi.org/10.14214/aff.7145

Abstract

Lowering of the ground water table is caused by decrease in the amount of water because of evapotranspiration. Evapotranspiration of a forest is determined by converting a lowering of the ground water table into a decrease in the amount of water. This paper describes a method to determine the transpiration of tree stands and ground vegetation as well as total evaporation on a Finnish drained peatland, which ground water table was relatively high, by measuring the level of the ground water table.

It was shown that in drained peatlands with relatively high ground water level, the ground water table fell during the day between about 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., and remain at approximately same level during rest of the day. The fall of ground water table was caused by transpiration of the trees and ground vegetation, and could be over 20 mm. Thus, measuring the daily lowering of ground water table can be used to estimate transpiration of the trees. When the method is applied to measuring the total evaporation of longer periods of time, also rainfall, interception, stand rainfall and stemflow have to be measured. The method is applicable only on sites with relatively high ground water level.

The PDF includes a summary in Finnish.

Keywords
drained peatlands; methods; ground water table; transpiration

Published in 1963

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Available at https://doi.org/10.14214/aff.7145 | Download PDF