Data for: Steal the rain: Interception loses and rainfall partitioning by a broad-leaf and a fine-leaf woody encroaching species in a southern African semi-arid savanna

Woody plant encroachment (WPE) has been found to alter ecosystem functioning and services in savannas. In rain-limited savannas, increasing woody cover can reduce streamflow and groundwater by altering evapotranspiration rates and rainfall partitioning, but the ecological relevance of this impact is not well known. This study quantified the altered partitioning of rainfall by two woody plant structural types (fine- and broad-leaved trees) across a gradient of encroachment in a semi-arid savanna in South Africa. Averaged across both plant functional types, loss of rainfall through canopy interception and subsequent evaporation roughly doubled (from 20.5 to 43.6% of total rainfall) with a roughly 13-fold increase in woody cover (from 2.4 to 31.4 m2/ha tree basal cover). Spatial partitioning changes comprised fourfold increases in stemflow (from 0.8 to 3.9% of total rainfall) and a decline in throughfall proportion of about two-fifths (from 80.2% to 47.3% of total rainfall). Changes in par..., ,