New Zealand Herald News Story on Forest Flows findings about extreme weather events on planted forests
The largest study of its kind in the world has revealed how our forests may soak up much more water in extreme rain than scientists first thought.
The new findings – showing how one forest north of Auckland responded to two of the year’s biggest deluges – come from a five-year, $13m project led by Scion.
The new data showed that, during the destructive Auckland Anniversary floods and ex-tropical Cyclone Gabrielle weeks later, Mahurangi Forest retained nearly 60 per cent of the 229mm of rain dumped on it.
Sensors revealed how, rather than flowing across the ground and into waterways, the rain was sponged up within the forest’s canopy, shallow groundwater and soil, all without soil near the surface saturating.
Read more at the NZ Herald website: