Abstract:This study was aimed to determine the effects of forest types on characteristic of rainfall partitioning and its key factors. The yield of throughfall, stemflow in two forest types (secondary forest of Castanopsis carlesii and Chinese fir plantation) were measured based on field survey in Sanming, Fujian. We selected 3 sample plots (20 m× 20 m) in each forest, and the yield of throughfall and stemflow was measured in the field after each rainfall. Our results indicated that the annual precipitation was 1 706.6 mm, and there was no significantly difference between the yield of throughfall in secondary forest (1 204.0 mm, 70.6% of gross precipitation) and Chinese fir plantation (1 289.9 mm, 75.6% of gross precipitation). The yield of stemflow in secondary forest (4.8% of gross precipitation) was significantly higher than that in Chinese fir plantation (2.7% of gross precipitation). The canopy interception rate was 24.7% and 21.8% of gross precipitation in secondary forest and Chinese fir plantation, respectively. In addition, the yield of throughfall was negative correlated to the canopy density and leaf area index (LAI), suggesting the forest with higher canopy density and LAI lead to low throughfall yield. These results indicated that the differential of rainfall partition in secondary forest and Chinese fir plantation were influenced by the different canopy openness and tree bark structure of the two forests, thus tree species could significant alter the patterns of rainfall partitioning.