Dark Island heath (Ninety-mile Plain, South Australia). IV. Soil moisture patterns produced by rainfall interception and stem-flow

Abstract

Rainfall interception and stem-flow in the heath vegetation on the Makin sand of the Ninety-Mile Plain of South Australia are discussed. The nanophyllous shrubs, Banksia ornata and Xanthorrhoea australis, intercept and redistribute a large percentage of the rainfall. Striking differences in soil moisture contents are produced over very small distances; these differences are not conspicuous underneath the leptophyllous undershrubs, although rainfall interception by their foliage and litter may reduce the quantity of water reaching the soil.