| Summary |
The purpose of this study is to understand the phenomenon of stemflow as it occurs in a field of maize. The approach used is to first develop a conceptual stemflow model and then to observe and collect data for application to the model. Stemflow can be defined as water that is collected on appendages of vegetation and subsequently directed in its path toward the Earth's surface to impact the soil in the immediate vicinity of the intercepting plant. Stemflow as a variable in interception studies has not been widely studied. There are several reasons for this, such as time, expense and difficulty of measuring stemflow. As a consequence, there is a common conceptual model of precipitation in which stemflow is an underestimated and/or hidden variable. Data gathered from four years of record aided in formulating a new conceptual model with the water variables appropriately arranged as to the soil surface, their area impact and each other. The new stemflow model was used as a basis, in every rainfall event, for portraying the moisture variables and the amounts measured of each. |
| General note | "Presented to the faculty of the Department of Geography and planning ... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Geography." |
| General note | Advisor: Richard A. Stephenson |
| Dissertation note | M.A. East Carolina University 1986 |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-58). |
| Genre/form | dissertations. |
| Genre/form | Academic theses. |
| Genre/form | Academic theses. |
| Genre/form | Thèses et écrits académiques. |
