Monitoring Vadose-Zone Soil Water for Reducing Nitrogen Leaching on Golf Courses

1999 ◽  
pp. 243-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. H. Snyder ◽  
J. L. Cisar
Keyword(s):  
Soil Water ◽  
Vadose Zone ◽  
Nitrogen Leaching ◽  
Golf Courses

Characterization of hydraulic properties in the upper vadose zone for two aquifers in Slovenia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vesna Zupanc ◽  
Matjaž Glavan ◽  
Miha Curk ◽  
Urša Pečan ◽  
Michael Stockinger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotopes ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Water Flow ◽  
Vadose Zone ◽  
Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Isotope Composition ◽  
Transport Processes ◽  
Precipitation Event ◽  
Water Fluxes ◽  
Flow And Transport

<p>Environmental tracers, present in the environment and provided by nature, provide integrative information about both water flow and transport. For studying water flow and solute transport, the hydrogen and oxygen isotopes are of special interest, as their ratios provide a tracer signal with every precipitation event and are seasonally distributed. In order to follow the seasonal distribution of stable isotopes in the soil water and use this information for identifying hydrological processes and hydraulic properties, soil was sampled three times in three profiles, two on Krško polje aquifer in SE Slovenia and one on Ljubljansko polje in central Slovenia. Isotope composition of soil water was measured with the water-vapor-equilibration method. Based on the isotope composition of soil water integrative information about water flow and transport processes with time and depth below ground were assessed. Porewater isotopes were in similar range as precipitation for all three profiles.  Variable isotope ratios in the upper 60 cm for the different sampling times indicated dynamic water fluxes in this upper part of the vadose zone. Results also showed more evaporation at one sampling location, Brege. The information from stable isotopes will be of importance for further analyzing the water fluxes in the vadose zone of the study sties. <br>This research was financed by the ARRS BIAT 20-21-32 and IAEA CRP 1.50.18 Multiple isotope fingerprints to identify sources and transport of agro-contaminants.  </p>

Passive Capillary Sampler for Measuring Soil Water Drainage and Flux in the Vadose Zone: Design, Performance, and Enhancement

2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. Jabro ◽  
Y. Kim ◽  
R. G. Evans ◽  
W. M. Iversen ◽  
W. B. Stevens
Keyword(s):  
Soil Water ◽  
Vadose Zone ◽  
Water Drainage ◽  
Design Performance

scholarly journals Diurnal pattern of the drying front in the desert and its application for determining the effective infiltration

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1021-1054 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Zeng ◽  
Z. Su ◽  
L. Wan ◽  
Z. Yang ◽  
T. Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Water ◽  
Vadose Zone ◽  
Inner Mongolia ◽  
Rainfall Event ◽  
Balance Model ◽  
Physical Parameters ◽  
Badain Jaran Desert ◽  
Hydrological Process ◽  
Diurnal Pattern ◽  
Variation Pattern

Abstract. Located in western Inner Mongolia, the Badain Jaran Desert is the second largest desert in China and consists of a regular series of stable megadunes, among which over 70 permanent lakes exist. The unexpected lakes in desert attracted research interests on exploring the hydrological process under this particular landscape; however, a very few literatures exist on the diurnal and spatial variation of the drying front in this area, which is the main issue in the desert hydrological process to characterize the movement of water in soil. In order to understand the drying front in the Badain Jaran Desert, a field campaign was conducted by the observations of soil physical parameters and micrometeorological parameters. With the field data, the performance of a vadose zone soil water balance model, the HYDRUS, was verified and calibrated. Then, the HYDRUS was used to produce the spatial and temporal information of coupled water, water vapour and heat transport in sand to characterize the variation pattern of the drying front before, during and after the rainfall. Finally, the deepest drying front was applied to determine the effective infiltration, which is defined as the amount of soil water captured by the sand beneath the deepest drying front by infiltrating water of an incident rainfall event.

scholarly journals Measuring Water Transmission Parameters in Vadose Zone Using Ponded Infiltration Techniques

2002 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
D.E. Elrick ◽  
W.D. Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Soil Water ◽  
Vadose Zone ◽  
Plant Nutrient ◽  
Industrial Chemicals ◽  
Transmission Parameters ◽  
Primary Mechanism ◽  
Soil Water Flow ◽  
Constant Head ◽  
Water Transmission ◽  
Infiltration Techniques

The flow of soil water is characterized by water transmission parameters, field-saturated hydraulic conductivity, matric flux potential and sorptivity. Soil water flow is, in turn, the primary mechanism by which soil contaminants, such as excess plant nutrient, bacteria, viruses, salts, and industrial chemicals are transported. Consequently, knowledge of soil water transmission parameters is essential for understanding, preventing and remediating the contamination of soil water and ground water. This paper describes steady-state and transient methods for obtaining soil water transmission parameters from ponded infiltration under constant head and falling head conditions in surface rings and shallow auger holes. Also discussed are the conditions under which the various methods are most appropriate. 

Novel streaming potential and thermal sensor techniques for monitoring water and nutrient fluxes in the vadose zone

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott B. Jones ◽  
Shmuel P. Friedman ◽  
Gregory Communar
Keyword(s):  
Soil Water ◽  
Vadose Zone ◽  
Water Flux ◽  
Streaming Potential ◽  
Subsurface Water ◽  
Measurement Tool ◽  
Nutrient Fluxes ◽  
Thermal Sensor ◽  
Sensor Development ◽  
Soil Water Flux

The “Novel streaming potential (SP) and thermal sensor techniques for monitoring water and nutrient fluxes in the vadose zone” project ended Oct. 30, 2015, after an extension to complete travel and intellectual exchange of ideas and sensors. A significant component of this project was the development and testing of the Penta-needle Heat Pulse Probe (PHPP) in addition to testing of the streaming potential concept, both aimed at soil water flux determination. The PHPP was successfully completed and shown to provide soil water flux estimates down to 1 cm day⁻¹ with altered heat input and timing as well as use of larger heater needles. The PHPP was developed by Scott B. Jones at Utah State University with a plan to share sensors with Shmulik P. Friedman, the ARO collaborator. Delays in completion of the PHPP resulted in limited testing at USU and a late delivery of sensors (Sept. 2015) to Dr. Friedman. Two key aspects of the subsurface water flux sensor development that delayed the availability of the PHPP sensors were the addition of integrated electrical conductivity measurements (available in February 2015) and resolution of bugs in the microcontroller firmware (problems resolved in April 2015). Furthermore, testing of the streaming potential method with a wide variety of non-polarizable electrodes at both institutions was not successful as a practical measurement tool for water flux due to numerous sources of interference and the M.S. student in Israel terminated his program prematurely for personal reasons. In spite of these challenges, the project funded several undergraduate students building sensors and several master’s students and postdocs participating in theory and sensor development and testing. Four peer-reviewed journal articles have been published or submitted to date and six oral/poster presentations were also delivered by various authors associated with this project. We intend to continue testing the "new generation" PHPP probes at both USU and at the ARO resulting in several additional publications coming from this follow-on research. Furthermore, Jones is presently awaiting word on an internal grant application for commercialization of the PHPP at USU. 

scholarly journals Bayesian inverse modelling of in situ soil water dynamics: using prior information about the soil hydraulic properties

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 2019-2063 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Scharnagl ◽  
J. A. Vrugt ◽  
H. Vereecken ◽  
M. Herbst
Keyword(s):  
Water Content ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Vadose Zone ◽  
Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Prior Information ◽  
Hydraulic Parameters ◽  
Soil Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Soil Hydraulic Parameters ◽  
Soil Hydraulic

Abstract. In situ observations of soil water state variables under natural boundary conditions are often used to estimate field-scale soil hydraulic properties. However, many contributions to the soil hydrological literature have demonstrated that the information content of such data is insufficient to reliably estimate all the soil hydraulic parameters. In this case study, we tested whether prior information about the soil hydraulic properties could help improve the identifiability of the van Genuchten-Mualem (VGM) parameters. Three different prior distributions with increasing complexity were formulated using the ROSETTA pedotransfer function (PTF) with input data that constitutes basic soil information and is readily available in most vadose zone studies. The inverse problem was posed in a formal Bayesian framework and solved using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation with the DiffeRential Evolution Adaptive Metropolis (DREAM) algorithm. Synthetic and real-world soil water content data were used to illustrate our approach. The results of this study corroborate and explicate findings previously reported in the literature. Indeed, soil water content data alone contained insufficient information to reasonably constrain all VGM parameters. The identifiability of these soil hydraulic parameters was substantially improved when an informative prior distribution was used with detailed knowledge of the correlation structure among the respective VGM parameters. A biased prior did not distort the results, which inspires confidence in the robustness and effectiveness of the presented method. The Bayesian framework presented in this study can be applied to a wide range of vadose zone studies and provides a blueprint for the use of prior information in inverse modelling of soil hydraulic properties at various spatial scales.

Simulating soil-plant-atmosphere interactions for sub-daily in situ observations of stable isotopes in soil and xylem water to assess two-pore domain model hypothesis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Bernhard ◽  
Stefan Seeger ◽  
Markus Weiler ◽  
Arthur Gessler ◽  
Katrin Meusburger
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotopes ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Vadose Zone ◽  
Model Performance ◽  
Root Water Uptake ◽  
In Situ Observations ◽  
Pore Domain ◽  
Model Structures ◽  
Isotope Measurements

<p>Recent advances in stable isotope measurements within the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum have paved the way to high-resolution sub-daily observations of plant water supply (Stumpp et al. 2018, Volkmann et al. 2016a, 2016b). It seems time is ripe for in-depth assessments of long-standing yet much-debated assumptions such as complete, homogenous mixing of water in the vadose zone (“one water world” versus "two water world") or absence of fractionation during root water uptake and vascular transport in plants.</p><p>Information on the nature of these processes contained in high-resolution data sets needs to be exploited. One way to test hypotheses and thereby advance our understanding of soil-plant water interactions is by analysing observations with numerical simulations of the system dynamics – a method also known as inverse modelling. By evaluating the model performance and parameter identifiability of different model structures, conclusions can be drawn regarding the relevance of the modelled processes for reproduction of the observations. Testing two different models allows thus to assess the impact of the difference.</p><p>We develop a framework for numerical simulation and model-based analysis of observations from soil-plant-atmosphere systems with a focus on isotopic fractionation. A central objective is to facilitate the evaluation of different model structures and thus test model hypotheses. This can assist development of models specifically tailored to the intended purpose and available data. The framework will first be tested with the "SWIS" model presented by Sprenger et al. (2018).</p><p>As an illustration of the framework, we will test the model performance on a dataset of continuous, in situ observations of stable isotopes in xylem water of beech trees and soil water in four depths combined with observations of soil water content. The model assumes one-dimensional soil water flow taking place in one or two separate flow domains for tightly and weakly bound pore water. These two water pools are separated by a matrix potential threshold and isotopic exchange is modelled only through the vapour phase. Root water uptake is parametrised using the Feddes-Jarvis model. First results allow to assess the relevance of the two-pore domain hypothesis for the different soil depths and xylem water.</p><p> </p><p>Sprenger, M., D. Tetzlaff, J. Buttle, H. Laudon, H. Leistert, C.P.J. Mitchell, J. Snelgrove, M. Weiler, and C. Soulsby. 2018. Measuring and modeling stable isotopes of mobile and bulk soil water. <em>Vadose Zone J.</em> 17:170149. doi:10.2136/vzj2017.08.0149</p><p>Stumpp, C., N. Brüggemann, and L. Wingate. 2018. Stable isotope approaches in vadose zone research. <em>Vadose Zone J.</em> 17:180096. Doi: 10.2136/vzj2018.05.0096</p><p>Volkmann, T.H., K. Haberer, A. Gessler, and M. Weiler. 2016a. High‐resolution isotope measurements resolve rapid ecohydrological dynamics at the soil–plant interface. <em>New Phytologist</em>, 210(3), 839-849.</p><p>Volkmann, T.H., K. Haberer, A. Gessler, and M. Weiler. 2016a. High‐resolution isotope measurements resolve rapid ecohydrological dynamics at the soil–plant interface. <em>New Phytologist</em>, 210(3), 839-849.</p>

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