scholarly journals Spatial Variability of Soil Physical and Hydraulic Properties in a Durum Wheat Field: An Assessment by the BEST-Procedure

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirko Castellini ◽  
Anna Maria Stellacci ◽  
Matteo Tomaiuolo ◽  
Emanuele Barca
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Variability ◽  
Crop Yield ◽  
Soil Texture ◽  
Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Wheat Yield ◽  
Structure Stability ◽  
Soil Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Field Scale ◽  
Cross Correlation Analysis ◽  
Soil Hydraulic

Spatial variability of soil properties at the field scale can determine the extent of agricultural yields and specific research in this area is needed. The general objective of this study was to investigate the relationships between soil physical and hydraulic properties and wheat yield at the field scale and test the BEST-procedure for the spatialization of soil hydraulic properties. A simplified version of the BEST-procedure, to estimate some capacitive indicators from the soil water retention curve (air capacity, ACe, relative field capacity, RFCe, plant available water capacity, PAWCe), was applied and coupled to estimates of structure stability index (SSI), determinations of soil texture and measurements of bulk density (BD), soil organic carbon (TOC) and saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks). Variables under study were spatialized to investigate correlations with observed medium-high levels of wheat yields. Soil physical quality assessment and correlations analysis highlighted some inconsistencies (i.e., a negative correlation between PAWCe and crop yield), and only five variables (i.e., clay + silt fraction, BD, TOC, SSI and PAWCe) were spatially structured. Therefore, for the soil–crop system studied, application of the simplified BEST-procedure did not return completely reliable results. Results highlighted that (i) BD was the only variable selected by stepwise analysis as a function of crop yield, (ii) BD showed a spatial distribution in agreement with that detected for crop yield, and (iii) the cross-correlation analysis showed a significant positive relationship between BD and wheat yield up to a distance of approximately 25 m. Such results have implications for Mediterranean agro-environments management. In any case, the reliability of simplified measurement methods for estimating soil hydraulic properties needs to be further verified by adopting denser measurements grids in order to better capture the soil spatial variability. In addition, the temporal stability of observed spatial relationships, i.e., between BD or soil texture and crop yields, needs to be investigated along a larger time interval in order to properly use this information for improving agronomic management.

scholarly journals Scale-dependency and spatial variability of soil hydraulic properties

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renduo Zhang ◽  
David Russo
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Variability ◽  
Water Flow ◽  
Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Scale Dependency ◽  
Soil Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Field Scale ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Lab Experiments ◽  
Soil Hydraulic

Water resources assessment and protection requires quantitative descriptions of field-scale water flow and contaminant transport through the subsurface, which, in turn, require reliable information about soil hydraulic properties. However, much is still unknown concerning hydraulic properties and flow behavior in heterogeneous soils. Especially, relationships of hydraulic properties changing with measured scales are poorly understood. Soil hydraulic properties are usually measured at a small scale and used for quantifying flow and transport in large scales, which causes misleading results. Therefore, determination of scale-dependent and spatial variability of soil hydraulic properties provides the essential information for quantifying water flow and chemical transport through the subsurface, which are the key processes for detection of potential agricultural/industrial contaminants, reduction of agricultural chemical movement, improvement of soil and water quality, and increase of agricultural productivity. The original research objectives of this project were: 1. to measure soil hydraulic properties at different locations and different scales at large fields; 2. to develop scale-dependent relationships of soil hydraulic properties; and 3. to determine spatial variability and heterogeneity of soil hydraulic properties as a function of measurement scales. The US investigators conducted field and lab experiments to measure soil hydraulic properties at different locations and different scales. Based on the field and lab experiments, a well-structured database of soil physical and hydraulic properties was developed. The database was used to study scale-dependency, spatial variability, and heterogeneity of soil hydraulic properties. An improved method was developed for calculating hydraulic properties based on infiltration data from the disc infiltrometer. Compared with the other methods, the proposed method provided more accurate and stable estimations of the hydraulic conductivity and macroscopic capillary length, using infiltration data collected atshort experiment periods. We also developed scale-dependent relationships of soil hydraulic properties using the fractal and geostatistical characterization. The research effort of the Israeli research team concentrates on tasks along the second objective. The main accomplishment of this effort is that we succeed to derive first-order, upscaled (block effective) conductivity tensor, K'ᵢⱼ, and time-dependent dispersion tensor, D'ᵢⱼ, i,j=1,2,3, for steady-state flow in three-dimensional, partially saturated, heterogeneous formations, for length-scales comparable with those of the formation heterogeneity. Numerical simulations designed to test the applicability of the upscaling methodology to more general situations involving complex, transient flow regimes originating from periodic rain/irrigation events and water uptake by plant roots suggested that even in this complicated case, the upscaling methodology essentially compensated for the loss of sub-grid-scale variations of the velocity field caused by coarse discretization of the flow domain. These results have significant implications with respect to the development of field-scale solute transport models capable of simulating complex real-world scenarios in the subsurface, and, in turn, are essential for the assessment of the threat posed by contamination from agricultural and/or industrial sources.  

scholarly journals Geophysical mapping of soil texture variability in the root zone to improve modelling of the water and nutrient flow.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Schwartz Madsen ◽  
Bo Vangsø Iversen ◽  
Christen Duus Børgesen
Keyword(s):  
Soil Texture ◽  
Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Root Zone ◽  
Clay Fraction ◽  
Clay Content ◽  
Auxiliary Variable ◽  
Pedotransfer Functions ◽  
Soil Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Sampling Density ◽  
Soil Hydraulic

<p>Modelling is often used to acquire information on water and nutrient fluxes within and out of the root zone. The models require detailed information on the spatial variability of soil hydraulic properties derived from soil texture and other soil characteristics using pedotransfer functions (PTFs). Soil texture can vary considerably within a field and is cumbersome and expensive to map in details using traditionally measurements in the laboratory. The electrical conductivity (EC) of the soil have shown to correlate with its textural composition.</p><p>This study investigates the ability of electromagnetic induction (EMI) methods to predict clay content in three soil layers of the root zone. As the clay fraction often is a main predictor in PTFs predicting soil hydraulic properties this parameter is of high interest. EMI and soil textural surveys on four Danish agricultural fields with varying textural composition were used. Sampling density varied between 0.5 and 38 points per hectare. The EMI data was gathered with a Dualem21 instrument with a sampling density 200-3000 points per hectare. The EC values were used together with the measured values of the clay content creating a statistical relationship between the two variables. Co-kriging of the clay content from the textural sampling points with the EC as auxiliary variable produces clay content maps of the fields. Unused (80%) texture points were used for validation. EMI-predicted clay content maps and clay content maps based on the survey were compared. The two sets of soil texture maps are used as predictors for PTF models to predict soil hydraulic properties as input in field-scale root zone modelling.</p><p>The comparisons between EC and clay content show some degree of correlation with an R<sup>2</sup> in the range of 0.55 to 0.80 for the four fields. The field with the highest average clay content showed the best relationship between the two parameters. Co-kriging with EC decreased mean error by 0.016 to 0.52 and RMSE by 0.04 to 1.80 between observed and predicted clay maps.</p>

Spatial Variability of Soil Hydraulic Properties in a Forested Hillslope

1999 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hendrayanto ◽  
Ken'ichirou Kosugi ◽  
Taro Uchida ◽  
Sakiko Matsuda ◽  
Takahisa Mizuyama
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Variability ◽  
Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Soil Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Soil Hydraulic

scholarly journals Comparison between field measurements and numerical simulation of steady-state solute transport in a heterogeneous soil profile

1997 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 853-871 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Vanderborght ◽  
D. Jacques ◽  
D. Mallants ◽  
P.-H. Tseng ◽  
J. Feyen
Keyword(s):  
Solute Transport ◽  
Water Flow ◽  
Random Fields ◽  
Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Soil Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Field Scale ◽  
Flow Heterogeneity ◽  
Heterogeneous Soil ◽  
Soil Hydraulic ◽  
Second Procedure

Abstract. Abstract: Field-scale solute dispersion is determined by water flow heterogeneity which results from spatial variability of soil hydraulic properties and soil moisture state. Measured variabilities of soil hydraulic properties are highly sensitive to the experimental method. Field-scale dispersion derived from leaching experiments in a macroporous loam soil was compared with field-scale dispersion obtained with numerical simulations in heterogeneous random fields. Four types of random fields of hydraulic properties having statistical properties derived from four different types of laboratory measurements were considered. Based on this comparison, the measurement method depicting heterogeneities of hydraulic properties most relevant to field-scale solute transport was identified. For unsaturated flow, the variability of the hydraulic conductivity characteristic measured on a small soil volume was the most relevant parameter. For saturated flow, simulated dispersion underestimated the measured dispersion and it was concluded that heterogeneity of macroscopic hydraulic properties could not represent solute flow heterogeneity under these flow conditions. Field-scale averaged solute concentrations depend both on the detection method and the averaging procedure. Flux-averaged concentrations (relevant to practical applications) differ from volume-averaged or resident concentrations (easy to measure), especially when water flow is more heterogeneous. Simulated flux and resident concentrations were subsequently used to test two simple one-dimensional transport models in predicting flux concentrations when they are calibrated on resident concentrations. In the first procedure, solute transport in a heterogeneous soil is represented by a 1-D convection dispersion process. The second procedure was based on the relation between flux and resident concentrations for a stochastic convective process. Better predictions of flux concentrations were obtained using the second procedure, especially when water flow and solute transport are very heterogeneous.

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