ZLV Online

Abstract

This paper deals with the evaluation of soil water retention in two small catchments, which are used in different ways. Both catchments are located in the headwater area of the Blanice River (Šumava Mts., Czech Republic). The experimental catchments of the Zbytinský Brook and the Tetřívčí Brook are the matter of a comparative paired catchment research aimed to runoff response monitoring in prevailing forest and meadow habitats. The evaluation of soil components is based on a detailed hydropedological research and on laboratory analyses with the use of the soil classification HOST and a dominant direction of water flow according to the DHF system. Then, potential and actual retention for each soil type in both catchments were calculated. The calculations were compared with the antecedent precipitation index (API) and with runoff response. A higher retention capacity was discovered in the non-forest Zbytinský Brook catchment with the correlation of causal conditions of about 30–40 mm. The diverse conditions of both catchments and different soil water retention of disadvantageous forested catchment are connected with historic changes in a land use and drainage arrangements. The study proves that forest should be assessed as a complex of interactive factors when only a mere land cover does not have any direct impact on the runoff in the catchment.