The goal was to estimate the canopy water storage capacity (S) at the tree-level by the
Pereira, mean, minimum, and Gash and Morton mathematical methods. We measured
interception (I) and S of individual trees of Pinus eldarica planted in a semi-arid climate
zone in the Chitgar Forest Park, near Tehran, Iran, from January to July, 2012. Gross
rainfall (GR) was measured using the mean of six rain-gauges and twenty rain-gauges were
installed beneath the crown of P.eldarica trees for measurement of throughfall (TF). I was
calculated as the GR minus TF. The free throughfall coefficient (p) by minimum method
was estimated 0.09. S was estimated by the four aforementioned methods. S was estimated
to be 1.26 mm, 1.28 mm, 1.28 mm, and 1.12 mm using the Pereira, minimum, mean, and
Gash and Morton methods, respectively. The similarity between the results of the
minimum, mean and Gash and Morton methods to the newly proposed method by Pereira
suggest that these four methods can be applied profitably for the estimation of S value at
tree-level measurements for this semiarid climate zone.
