During the process of interception, vegetation indirectly influences various natural processes, including soil erosion. Kinetic energy (KE) of raindrops is often used as an indicator of the erosive potential of rainfall. The change in the microstructure of raindrops after contact with vegetation has a significant influence on the change in their kinetic energy The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the influence of precipitation interception on the kinetic energy of raindrops under the canopy of two different tree species, in different phenological phases and under different meteorological conditions. Over the two-year period, 1-minute data on rainfall in an open location and on throughfall under the birch and pine canopies were obtained with three optical disdrometers. A total of 171 precipitation events were recorded, divided into dry and wet sub-periods, and classified into two phenological phases, namely the leafed and the leafless. For each rainfall event, we calculated the size (D50) and KE of the raindrops. In addition, we analysed data on meteorological conditions during the events. To assess the relationship between the influencing variables and the KE of the raindrops, we used two machine learning methods, namely the boosted regression trees (BRT) method and the random forest (RF) method. The two methods were applied to two sets of data, namely the influence of rainfall characteristics and the influence of throughfall characteristics on the KE of drops under the tree canopy. The results show that the KE of raindrops is strongly influenced by the presence of leaves in the canopy, with birch having a much greater effect on the decrease of KE during the leafed season. On average, birch reduced raindrop KE by 32% on average during the leafed season and by 18% during the leafless season over the whole period considered. The type of vegetation also plays an important role, as pine intercepts a higher amount of rainfall than birch (by 37.5% more over the entire period considered) and thus has a more significant effect on the KE of raindrops. Both machine learning methods showed that the amount of precipitation is the most influential variable, regardless of the period or vegetation type. The results also show that throughfall duration has a greater influence on the KE during the period when the canopy is leafed, and that D50 and maximum wind speed have a greater influence when considering the influence of throughfall on KE of raindrops under the tree canopy.
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