{"id":1681,"date":"2021-07-14T12:20:10","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T11:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/?page_id=1681"},"modified":"2021-07-14T12:52:29","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T11:52:29","slug":"blog-investigating-the-importance-of-wet-canopy-evaporation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/blog\/blog-investigating-the-importance-of-wet-canopy-evaporation\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog – Investigating the importance of wet-canopy evaporation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wet-canopy evaporation: <\/strong>Dr Trevor Page, Senior Research Associate<\/strong><\/a>, University of Lancaster, working on the <\/strong>Q-NFM<\/strong><\/a> project<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Explaining his research, part of the Q-NFM project, on wet canopy evaporation Dr Trev Page explained: \u201cthere is a lot of interest in the potential of tree planting as a\u00a0 nature-based intervention to help mitigate flooding.\u00a0 One of the ways that trees can reduce flooding is he loss of water by evaporation from wet surfaces of vegetation directly back to the atmosphere: known as wet-canopy evaporation.\u00a0 A particular focus of our work is on large and extreme rainfall events that cause widespread flooding.\u00a0 Many previous studies concluded that evaporation from trees was insignificant for such events.\u00a0 But research that has measured wet-canopy \u2018directly\u2019 using forest plot experiments has often shown significant wet-canopy evaporation losses, as high as 30 % during large and extreme events.\u00a0 This is what we are investigating further.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething that is relatively novel about our work is that we are recording high frequency meteorological conditions at the same time as we are measuring evaporation: these meteorological measurements are not reported in detail for many previous studies.\u00a0 What \u2019s more, we are looking to gather data during extreme rainfall events, as there are only relatively few data during large events. Effectively our work involves \u2018storm chasing\u2019 as we have to align the collection of our measurements with large storms.\u00a0\u00a0 This means setting up our equipment shortly before storms are forecast and collecting the measurements as soon as possible afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Trev described some of the challenges that Q-NFM has faced: \u201cIt isn\u2019t easy to estimate how much evaporation may occur for a specific rainfall event as it varies hugely depending on meteorological conditions. The potential for evaporation increases when humidity is lower as the atmosphere can accept more evaporated water vapour \u2013 conversely, where the humidity is at 100% and the atmosphere is already saturated, no evaporation can take place. Where the atmosphere is not saturated and water is evaporating from the leaves, stems and trunk of the trees, the air around these surfaces becomes saturated \u2018locally\u2019 so evaporation is limited \u2013 but if windspeeds are high the local saturated air is blown away and replaced by less humid air allowing more evaporation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of evaporation also varies with different types of vegetation. Vegetation with a large surface area where water can sit ready to be evaporated provides higher potential for evaporation and taller vegetation is exposed to higher windspeeds, also giving higher potential for evaporation.\u00a0 In the UK where most large rainfall events occur in autumn and winter when deciduous trees lose their leaves reduces the potential for evaporation. For these reasons, short grass has a low potential for evaporation and tall evergreen trees provide a high potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trev described how the field research is carried out: \u201cWe are measuring rainfall outside the wood and under the tree canopy (throughfall) as well as water that reaches the ground via tree trunks (stemflow).\u00a0 Wet-canopy evaporation is the difference between the rainfall that falls above or outside of the canopy and that which reaches the woodland floor (throughfall and stemflow combined).”<\/p>\n

“For accurate measurements we needed to install many throughfall collectors as throughfall is highly variable under the tree canopy.”<\/p>\n

Looking forward to how the research may inform future land management Trev pointed out: \u201cthe advantage of using tree cover to help reduce flooding is that the water is lost to the atmosphere and does not need to be stored in the catchment during a flood event.\u00a0 However, losses of water by evaporation are per unit area which means that many trees have to be planted to get a significant effect for an entire catchment.\u201d<\/p>\n

A paper on this work is in preparation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Contact: t.page@lancaster.ac.uk<\/p>\n

Twitter: @NERC_QNFM<\/a><\/p>\n

Q-NFM website: here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wet-canopy evaporation: Dr Trevor Page, Senior Research Associate, University of Lancaster, working on the Q-NFM project Explaining his research, part of the Q-NFM project, on wet canopy evaporation Dr Trev…Read More ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":0,"parent":671,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1681","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBlog - Investigating the importance of wet-canopy evaporation - NERC Natural Flood Management research programme<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/blog\/blog-investigating-the-importance-of-wet-canopy-evaporation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blog - Investigating the importance of wet-canopy evaporation - NERC Natural Flood Management research programme\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Wet-canopy evaporation: Dr Trevor Page, Senior Research Associate, University of Lancaster, working on the Q-NFM project Explaining his research, part of the Q-NFM project, on wet canopy evaporation Dr Trev...Read More >\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/blog\/blog-investigating-the-importance-of-wet-canopy-evaporation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NERC Natural Flood Management research programme\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-07-14T11:52:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2021\/07\/942-239x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/blog\/blog-investigating-the-importance-of-wet-canopy-evaporation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/blog\/blog-investigating-the-importance-of-wet-canopy-evaporation\/\",\"name\":\"Blog - Investigating the importance of wet-canopy evaporation - NERC Natural Flood Management research programme\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-14T11:20:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-07-14T11:52:29+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/blog\/blog-investigating-the-importance-of-wet-canopy-evaporation\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/blog\/blog-investigating-the-importance-of-wet-canopy-evaporation\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/blog\/blog-investigating-the-importance-of-wet-canopy-evaporation\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"NFM Blog\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Blog – Investigating the importance of wet-canopy evaporation\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/\",\"name\":\"NERC Natural Flood Management research programme\",\"description\":\"Understanding the effectiveness of Natural Flood Management (NFM)\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Blog - Investigating the importance of wet-canopy evaporation - NERC Natural Flood Management research programme","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/blog\/blog-investigating-the-importance-of-wet-canopy-evaporation\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Blog - Investigating the importance of wet-canopy evaporation - NERC Natural Flood Management research programme","og_description":"Wet-canopy evaporation: Dr Trevor Page, Senior Research Associate, University of Lancaster, working on the Q-NFM project Explaining his research, part of the Q-NFM project, on wet canopy evaporation Dr Trev...Read More >","og_url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/blog\/blog-investigating-the-importance-of-wet-canopy-evaporation\/","og_site_name":"NERC Natural Flood Management research programme","article_modified_time":"2021-07-14T11:52:29+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2021\/07\/942-239x300.jpg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/blog\/blog-investigating-the-importance-of-wet-canopy-evaporation\/","url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/blog\/blog-investigating-the-importance-of-wet-canopy-evaporation\/","name":"Blog - Investigating the importance of wet-canopy evaporation - NERC Natural Flood Management research programme","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-07-14T11:20:10+00:00","dateModified":"2021-07-14T11:52:29+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/blog\/blog-investigating-the-importance-of-wet-canopy-evaporation\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/blog\/blog-investigating-the-importance-of-wet-canopy-evaporation\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/blog\/blog-investigating-the-importance-of-wet-canopy-evaporation\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"NFM Blog","item":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Blog – Investigating the importance of wet-canopy evaporation"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/#website","url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/","name":"NERC Natural Flood Management research programme","description":"Understanding the effectiveness of Natural Flood Management (NFM)","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1681"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1702,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1681\/revisions\/1702"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/nerc-nfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}