scholarly journals Experimental Study on Thermal Conductivity of Organic-Rich Soils under Thawed and Frozen States

Geofluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Ruixia He ◽  
Ning Jia ◽  
Huijun Jin ◽  
Hongbo Wang ◽  
Xinyu Li
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Organic Matter ◽  
Soil Temperature ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Phase Changes ◽  
Surface Processes ◽  
Organic Soils ◽  
Computational Formula ◽  
Soil Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Land Surface Processes

Thermal properties are important for featuring the water-heat transfer capacity of soil. They are also key to many processes in earth sciences, such as the land surface processes and ecological and geoenvironmental dynamics and their changes in permafrost regions. With loose and porous structures, the organic matter layer in soil strata substantially influences soil thermal conductivity. So far, thermal conductivity of mineral soils has been explored extensively and in depth, but there are only limited studies on that of organic soils. In this study, influences of soil temperature, soil moisture saturation (SMS), and soil organic matter (SOM) content on soil thermal conductivity were analyzed on the basis of laboratory experiments on the silt-organic soil mixtures of varied mixing ratios. Results show that soil thermal conductivity declines slowly with the lowering temperatures from 10 to 0°C; however, it increases and finally stabilizes when temperature further lowers from 0 to -10°C. It is important to note that thermal conductivity peaks in the temperature range of -2~0°C (silty and organic-poor soil) and -5~0°C (organic-rich soil), possibly due to phase changes of ice/water in warm permafrost. Under both thawed and frozen states, soil thermal conductivity is positively related with SMS. However, with rising SOM content, the growth rate of soil thermal conductivity with SMS slows gradually. Given the same SMS, soil thermal conductivity declines exponentially with increasing SOM content. Based on the experimental and theoretical analyses, a new empirical computational formula of soil thermal conductivity is established by taking into account of the SOM content, SMS, and soil temperature. The results may help better parameterize in simulating and predicting land surface processes and for optimizing frozen soil engineering designs and provide theoretical bases for exploring the dynamic mechanisms of environmental changes in cold regions under a changing climate.

scholarly journals Impact of gravels and organic matter on the thermal properties of grassland soils in southern France

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 737-765
Author(s):  
J.-C. Calvet ◽  
N. Fritz ◽  
C. Berne ◽  
B. Piguet ◽  
W. Maurel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Organic Matter ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Soil Organic Matter ◽  
Soil Temperature ◽  
Soil Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Volumetric Fraction ◽  
Southern France ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Conductivity Models

Abstract. Soil moisture is the main driver of temporal changes in values of the soil thermal conductivity. The latter is a key variable in land surface models (LSMs) used in hydrometeorology, for the simulation of the vertical profile of soil temperature in relation to soil moisture. Shortcomings in soil thermal conductivity models tend to limit the impact of improving the simulation of soil moisture in LSMs. Models of the thermal conductivity of soils are affected by uncertainties, especially in the representation of the impact of soil properties such as the volumetric fraction of quartz (q), soil organic matter, and gravels. As soil organic matter and gravels are often neglected in LSMs, the soil thermal conductivity models used in most LSMs represent the mineral fine earth, only. Moreover, there is no map of q and it is often assumed that this quantity is equal to the volumetric fraction of sand. In this study, q values are derived by reverse modelling from the continuous soil moisture and soil temperature sub-hourly observations of the Soil Moisture Observing System – Meteorological Automatic Network Integrated Application (SMOSMANIA) network at 21 grassland sites in southern France, from 2008 to 2015. The soil temperature observations are used to retrieve the soil thermal diffusivity (Dh) at a depth of 0.10 m in unfrozen conditions, solving the thermal diffusion equation. The soil moisture and Dh values are then used together with the measured soil properties to retrieve soil thermal conductivity (λ) values. For ten sites, the obtained λ value at saturation (λsat) cannot be retrieved or is lower than the value corresponding to a null value of q, probably in relation to a high density of grass roots at these sites or to the presence of stones. For the remaining eleven sites, q is negatively correlated with the volumetric fraction of solids other than sand. The impact of neglecting gravels and organic matter on λsat is assessed. It is shown that these factors have a major impact on λsat.

Land surface processes and Sahel climate

2000 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Nicholson
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Surface Processes ◽  
Land Surface Processes

Land Surface Processes Relevant to Sub-seasonal to Seasonal (S2S) Prediction

2019 ◽  
pp. 165-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Dirmeyer ◽  
Pierre Gentine ◽  
Michael B. Ek ◽  
Gianpaolo Balsamo
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Surface Processes ◽  
Land Surface Processes

The use of multi-tracer flask-measurements to understand changes in the land-surface processes.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theertha Kariyathan ◽  
Wouter Peters ◽  
Julia Marshall ◽  
Ana Bastos ◽  
Markus Reichstein
Keyword(s):  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Seasonal Cycle ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
Plant Productivity ◽  
Surface Processes ◽  
Terrestrial Biosphere ◽  
Land Surface Processes ◽  
Species Analysis

<p>Carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) is an important greenhouse gas, and it accounts for about 20% of the present-day anthropogenic greenhouse effect. Atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> is cycled between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere through various land-surface processes and thus links the atmosphere and terrestrial biosphere through positive and negative feedback. Since multiple trace gas elements are linked by common biogeochemical processes, multi-species analysis is useful for reinforcing our understanding and can help in partitioning CO<sub>2</sub> fluxes. For example, in the northern hemisphere, CO<sub>2</sub> has a distinct seasonal cycle mainly regulated by plant photosynthesis and respiration and it has a distinct negative correlation with the seasonal cycle of the δ<sup>13</sup>C isotope of CO<sub>2</sub>, due to a stronger isotopic fractionation associated with terrestrial photosynthesis. Therefore, multi-species flask-data measurements are useful for the long-term analysis of various green-house gases. Here we try to infer the complex interaction between the atmosphere and the terrestrial biosphere by multi-species analysis using atmospheric flask measurement data from different NOAA flask measurement sites across the northern hemisphere.</p><p>This study focuses on the long-term changes in the seasonal cycle of CO<sub>2</sub> over the northern hemisphere and tries to attribute the observed changes to driving land-surface processes through a combined analysis of the δ<sup>13</sup>C seasonal cycle. For this we generate metrics of different parameters of the CO<sub>2</sub> and δ<sup>13</sup>C seasonal cycle like the seasonal cycle amplitude given by the peak-to-peak difference of the cycle (indicative of the amount of CO<sub>2</sub> taken up by terrestrial uptake),  the intensity of plant productivity inferred from the slope of the seasonal cycle during the growing season , length of growing season and the start of the growing season. We analyze the inter-relation between these metrics and how they change across latitude and over time. We hypothesize that the CO<sub>2 </sub>seasonal cycle amplitude is controlled both by the intensity of plant productivity and period of the active growing season and that the timing of the growing season can affect the intensity of plant productivity. We then quantify these relationships, including their variation over time and latitudes and describe the effects of an earlier start of the growing season on the intensity of plant productivity and the CO<sub>2</sub> uptake by plants.</p>

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