Hydrologic flowpaths in tropical rainforest soilscapes - a review

A conceptual framework of hillslope hydrological response patterns and their environmental controls is used to evaluate past and present research sites in tropical rainforests with regard to their predominant controls and hydrological functioning. This evaluation highlights the importance of near-surface flowpaths for runoff generation in Acrisol landscapes, and lack thereof in Ferralsol landscapes. Both soil types tentatively define the width of a spectrum of possible hillslope hydrologic flowpaths, from predominantly vertical to predominantly lateral flowpaths. This result allows the testing of hypotheses concerning the soil geographical occurrence of particular processes of runoff generation even where soil hydraulic data are not available. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.