Water Retention and Biomass of Litter from Varied Pruning Practices on Tea Bushes

The hydrological function is one of the important ecological contributions of tree litter in a forest. To understand the eco-hydrological effects of litter from bush pruning in tea plantations, the biomass, water retention, and flood-intercepting capacity of the litter were studied in the field as well as in the laboratory with simulation experiments. The results indicated that the various pruning practices produced 1.75 tons to 2.49 tons of litter biomass per hm²; and, the water retention of the litter peaked within 2 h after a rainfall. The maximum water holding of the leaves was 106.16%, which was greater than that of the leaves-stems mixture, and followed by that of the stems; that of the mixed litter was 121.33% by the moderate pruning, 113.69% by the severe pruning, and 106.16% by the light pruning; the average rate of water absorbed by the leaves was 2.14 g·g^-1·h^-1, followed by the mixed litter, and the lowest by the stems; the maximum flood-intercepting rates ranged from 95.12% to 110.12% with effective rates of 79.19%-91.91%; when the clippings of leaves and stems were mixed, the capacity was highest with the moderate pruning with an effective intercepting capacity of 2.19 t·hm^-2, followed by the severe pruning, and the lowest with the light pruning. It was concluded that after pruning the potential of a tea plantation to prevent flooding from a heavy downpour was less than that of the forest ecosystem at large.