Water-level measurements in an observation well found to be useful in determining soil-moisture conditions

1949 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.E. Dennis
HortScience ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 599E-600
Author(s):  
Regina P. Bracy ◽  
Richard L. Parish

Improved stand establishment of direct-seeded crops has usually involved seed treatment and/or seed covers. Planters have been evaluated for seed/plant spacing uniformity, singulation, furrow openers, and presswheel design; however, effects of presswheels and seed coverers on plant establishment have not been widely investigated. Five experiments were conducted in a fine sandy loam soil to determine effect of presswheels and seed coverers on emergence of direct-seeded cabbage and mustard. Seed were planted with Stanhay 870 seeder equipped with one of four presswheels and seed coverers. Presswheels included smooth, mesh, concave split, and flat split types. Seed coverers included standard drag, light drag, paired knives, and no coverer. Soil moisture at planting ranged from 8% to 19% in the top 5 cm of bed. Differences in plant counts taken 2 weeks after planting were minimal with any presswheel or seed coverer. Visual observation indicated the seed furrow was more completely closed with the knife coverer in high soil moisture conditions. All tests received at least 14 mm of precipitation within 6 days from planting, which may account for lack of differences in plant emergence.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nunziarita Palazzolo ◽  
David J. Peres ◽  
Enrico Creaco ◽  
Antonino Cancelliere

<p>Landslide triggering thresholds provide the rainfall conditions that are likely to trigger landslides, therefore their derivation is key for prediction purposes. Different variables can be considered for the identification of thresholds, which commonly are in the form of a power-law relationship linking rainfall event duration and intensity or cumulated event rainfall. The assessment of such rainfall thresholds generally neglects initial soil moisture conditions at each rainfall event, which are indeed a predisposing factor that can be crucial for the proper definition of the triggering scenario. Thus, more studies are needed to understand whether and the extent to which the integration of the initial soil moisture conditions with rainfall thresholds could improve the conventional precipitation-based approach. Although soil moisture data availability has hindered such type of studies, yet now this information is increasingly becoming available at the large scale, for instance as an output of meteorological reanalysis initiatives. In particular, in this study, we focus on the use of the ERA5-Land reanalysis soil moisture dataset. Climate reanalysis combines past observations with models in order to generate consistent time series and the ERA5-Land data actually provides the volume of water in soil layer at different depths and at global scale. Era5-Land project is, indeed, a global dataset at 9 km horizontal resolution in which atmospheric data are at an hourly scale from 1981 to present. Volumetric soil water data are available at four depths ranging from the surface level to 289 cm, namely 0-7 cm, 7-28 cm, 28-100 cm, and 100-289 cm. After collecting the rainfall and soil moisture data at the desired spatio-temporal resolution, together with the target data discriminating landslide and no-landslide events, we develop automatic triggering/non-triggering classifiers and test their performances via confusion matrix statistics. In particular, we compare the performances associated with the following set of precursors: a) event rainfall duration and depth (traditional approach), b) initial soil moisture at several soil depths, and c) event rainfall duration and depth and initial soil moisture at different depths. The approach is applied to the Oltrepò Pavese region (northern Italy), for which the historical observed landslides have been provided by the IFFI project (Italian landslides inventory). Results show that soil moisture may allow an improvement in the performances of the classifier, but that the quality of the landslide inventory is crucial.</p>


Landslides ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Valenzuela ◽  
María José Domínguez-Cuesta ◽  
Manuel Antonio Mora García ◽  
Montserrat Jiménez-Sánchez

2009 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 935-942 ◽  
Author(s):  
LA. Pires ◽  
VJM. Cardoso ◽  
CA. Joly ◽  
RR. Rodrigues

The germination response of Ocotea pulchella (Nees) Mez seeds to light, temperature, water level and pulp presence is introduced. The laboratory assays were carried out in germination chambers and thermal-gradient apparatus, whereas the field assays were performed in environments with distinct light, temperature and soil moisture conditions within a permanent parcel of Restinga forest of the Parque Estadual da Ilha do Cardoso, Cananéia, São Paulo. The seeds do not exhibit dormancy, they are non photoblastic, and a loss of viability in dry stored seeds can be related to a decrease in water content of the seed. The presence of the pulp and the flooded substratum influenced negatively the germination of O. pulchella seeds tested in the laboratory. Otherwise, light and temperature probably are not limiting factors of the germination of O. pulchella seeds in the natural environment of Restinga. The optimum temperature range for germination of Ocotea pulchella seeds was 20 to 32 ºC, the minimum or base temperature estimated was 11 ºC and the maximum ranged between 33 and 42 ºC. The isotherms exhibited a sigmoidal pattern well described by the Weibull model in the sub-optimal temperature range. The germinability of O. pulchella seeds in the understorey, both in wet and dry soil, was higher than in gaps. Germination was not affected by fluctuations in soil moisture content in the understorey environment, whereas in gaps, germination was higher in wet soils. Thus, the germination of this species involves the interaction of two or more factors and it cannot be explained by a single factor.


2010 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 92-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peggy Zinke ◽  
Nils Reidar Bøe Olsen ◽  
Jim Bogen ◽  
Nils Rüther

A 3D numerical model was used to compute the discharge distribution in the channel branches of Lake Øyeren's delta in Norway. The model solved the Navier–Stokes equations with the k–ɛ turbulence model on a 3D unstructured grid. The bathymetry dataset for the modelling had to be combined from different data sources. The results for three different flow situations in 1996 and 1997 showed a relative accuracy of the computed discharges within the range of 0 to±20% compared with field measurements taken by an ADCP at 13 cross sections of the distributary channels. The factors introducing the most error in the computed results are believed to be uncertainties concerning the bathymetry. A comparison between the computational results of the older morphology data from 1985–1990 and the model morphology from 1995–2004 indicated that morphological changes in this period had already had consequences for the flow distribution in some channels. Other important error sources were the inevitable use of averaged water level gradients because of unavailable water level measurements within the delta.


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