Modelling of snow interception in the spruce forest in the Ptačí Brook basin, Šumava Mts.

Snow interception is one of the most important process of the hydrological balance of river basins. Measuring of snow interception is a very complex activity, therefore, models are frequently used to calculated snow interception from the vegetation structure and measured meteorological variables. A field research has been carried out in the Ptačí Brook basin in the Sumava Mts. to describe the canopy structure of the spruce forest using hemispherical images taken in the winter season 2020/21. The vegetation characteristics are essential for modelling of the snow interception. The mean Leaf area index calculated from the hemispherical images at the study plot reached 2.34 with the respective canopy closure equal to 86.16%. These values were further used as input values for the calculation of seasonal cumulative snow interception at the study plot for the winter season 2020/21. The original, more complex model was compared with two, less complex equations. Consequently, the model was applied to four consecutive winter seasons 2017-2021. The efficiency of the snow interception (a proportion of the intercepted snow to total snowfall water equivalent) ranged from 36.85% to 45.81% depending on the study season. The snow interception efficiency was considerably higher in the last winter season compared to..