Soil hydraulic properties of an Orthic Black Chernozem under long-term tillage and residue management

1996 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baldev Singh ◽  
D. S. Chanasyk ◽  
W. B. McGill
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Pore Size ◽  
Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Total Porosity ◽  
Residue Management ◽  
Soil Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Transmission Characteristics ◽  
Hordeum Vulgare L ◽  
No Till ◽  
Soil Hydraulic

The effects of tillage on soil hydraulic properties are unclear from the literature and residue effects are little reported. The hydraulic properties of an Orthic Black Chernozem under three tillage-residue systems in central Alberta — tillage with straw incorporated (till+straw) or removed (till−straw) — and no tillage with straw on the surface (no till+straw) — were studied for 2 yr. Measurements began in the 9th year of continuous barley (Hordeum vulgare L.).Plant-available water capacity differed among treatments only in the 0–2.5 cm layer, due to differences in water retention at −1500 kPa. Pore size partitioning revealed relatively high macroporosities (14–18% of total porosity) and residual porosity (34–41% of total porosity), but no treatment differences in the tillage layer. Saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat), infiltration rate and cumulative infiltration at 1 h followed the trend: no till+straw > till+straw > till−straw. Infiltration characteristics and hydraulic conductivity had considerable temporal variation. Interestingly, field and laboratory measurements gave the same order of magnitude of transmission characteristics. The common similarity of the no till+straw and the till+straw treatments and their usual difference from the till−straw treatment, especially in the water transmission characteristics, indicate the importance of the return of residue to the soil. The influence of straw on soil hydraulic properties does not appear to depend on whether it was incorporated or not. Key words: tillage, straw, residue, soil hydraulic properties, infiltration, pore size distribution

Hyphal colonization of Rhizophagus irregularis increases unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of a loamy sand distant from roots

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Bitterlich ◽  
Richard Pauwels
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Water Content ◽  
Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Volumetric Water Content ◽  
Rhizophagus Irregularis ◽  
Loamy Sand ◽  
Soil Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Unsaturated Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Soil Hydraulic ◽  
Root Exclusion

<p>Hydraulic properties of mycorrhizal soils have rarely been reported and difficulties in directly assigning potential effects to hyphae of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) arise from other consequences of AMF being present, i.e. their influence on growth and water consumption rates of their host plants that both also influence soil hydraulic properties.</p><p>We assumed that the typical nylon meshes used for root-exclusion experiments in mycorrhizal research can provide a dynamic hydraulic barrier. It is expected that the uniform pore size of the rigid meshes causes a sudden hydraulic decoupling of the enmeshed inner volume from the surrounding soil as soon as the mesh pores become air-filled. Growing plants below the soil moisture threshold for hydraulic decoupling would minimize plant-size effects on root-exclusion compartments and allow for a more direct assignment of hyphal presence to modulations in soil hydraulic properties.</p><p>We carried out water retention and hydraulic conductivity measurements with two tensiometers introduced in two different heights in a cylindrical compartment (250 cm³) containing a loamy sand, either with or without the introduction of a 20 µm nylon mesh equidistantly between the tensiometers. Introduction of a mesh reduced hydraulic conductivity across the soil volumes by two orders of magnitude from 471 to 6 µm d<sup>-1</sup> at 20% volumetric water content.</p><p>We grew maize plants inoculated or not with Rhizophagus irregularis in the same soil in pots that contained root-exclusion compartments while maintaining 20% volumetric water content. When hyphae were present in the compartments, water potential and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity increased for a given water content compared to compartments free of hyphae. These differences increased with progressive soil drying.</p><p>We conclude that water extractability from soils distant to roots can be facilitated under dry conditions when AMF hyphae are present.</p><p> </p>

scholarly journals Further tests of the HYPROP evaporation method for estimating the unsaturated soil hydraulic properties

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camila R. Bezerra-Coelho ◽  
Luwen Zhuang ◽  
Maria C. Barbosa ◽  
Miguel Alfaro Soto ◽  
Martinus Th. van Genuchten
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Unsaturated Soil ◽  
Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Water Retention ◽  
Measurement Techniques ◽  
Richards Equation ◽  
Water Retention Curve ◽  
Soil Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Evaporation Method ◽  
Soil Hydraulic

AbstractMany soil, hydrologic and environmental applications require information about the unsaturated soil hydraulic properties. The evaporation method has long been used for estimating the drying branches of the soil hydraulic functions. An increasingly popular version of the evaporation method is the semi-automated HYPROP©measurement system (HMS) commercialized by Decagon Devices (Pullman, WA) and UMS AG (München, Germany). Several studies were previously carried out to test the HMS methodology by using the Richards equation and the van-Genuchten-Mualem (VG) or Kosugi-Mualem soil hydraulic functions to obtain synthetic data for use in the HMS analysis, and then to compare results against the original hydraulic properties. Using HYDRUS-1D, we carried out independent tests of the HYPROP system as applied to the VG functions for a broad range of soil textures. Our results closely agreed with previous findings. Accurate estimates were especially obtained for the soil water retention curve and its parameters, at least over the range of available retention measurements. We also successfully tested a dual-porosity soil, as well as an extremely coarse medium with a very high van Genuchtennvalue. The latter case gave excellent results for water retention, but failed for the hydraulic conductivity. In many cases, especially for soils with intermediate and highnvalues, an independent estimate of the saturated hydraulic conductivity should be obtained. Overall, the HMS methodology performed extremely well and as such constitutes a much-needed addition to current soil hydraulic measurement techniques.

Testing an infiltrometer methodology to investigate water impact effects on both soil sealing and hydraulic properties of a loam soil under conventional tillage and no-tillage

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirko Castellini ◽  
Simone Di Prima ◽  
Anna Maria Stellacci ◽  
Massimo Iovino ◽  
Vincenzo Bagarello
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Water Retention ◽  
Soil Management ◽  
Water Retention Curve ◽  
Soil Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Retention Curve ◽  
Soil Sealing ◽  
Loam Soil ◽  
Soil Hydraulic

<p>Testing new experimental procedures to assess the effects of the drops impact on the soil sealing formation is a main topic in soil hydrology.</p><p>In this field investigation, the methodological approach proposed first by Bagarello et al. (2014) was extended to account for a greater soil infiltration surface (i.e., about 3.5 times higher), a higher range and number of heights of water pouring and to evaluate the different impact on soil management. For this purpose, the effects of three water pouring heights (low, L=3 cm; medium, M=100 cm; high, H=200 cm) on both no-tilled (NT) and conventionally tilled (CT) loam soil were investigated by Beerkan infiltration runs and using the BEST-procedure of data analysis to estimate the soil hydraulic properties.</p><p>Final infiltration rate decreased when perturbing runs (i.e., M and H) were carried out as compared with the non-perturbing (L) ones (by a factor of 1.5-3.1 under NT and 3.4-4.4 under CT). Similarly, the water retention scale parameter, h<sub>g</sub>, increased (i.e., higher in absolute terms) by a factor 1.6-1.8 under NT and by a factor 1.7 under CT. Saturated hydraulic conductivity, K<sub>s</sub>, changed significantly as a function of the increase of water pouring height; regardless of the soil management, perturbing runs caused a reduction in soil permeability by a factor 5 or 6. Effects on hydraulic functions (i.e., soil water retention curve and hydraulic conductivity function), obtained with the BEST-Steady algorithm, were also highlighted. For instance, differences in water retention curve at fixed soil pressure head values (i.e., field capacity, FC, and permanent wilting point, PWP) due to perturbing and non-perturbing runs, were estimated as higher under NT (3.8%) than CT (3.4%) for FC, and equal to 2.1% or 1.6% for PWP.</p><p>Main results of this investigation confirm that a recently tilled loamy soil, without vegetation cover, can be less resilient as compared to a no-tilled one, and that tested water pouring heights methodology looks promising to mimic effects of high energy rainfall events and to quantify the soil sealing effects under alternative management of the soil.</p><p><strong>Acknowledgments</strong></p><p>The work was supported by the project “STRATEGA, Sperimentazione e TRAsferimento di TEcniche innovative di aGricoltura conservativA”, funded by Regione Puglia–Dipartimento Agricoltura, Sviluppo Rurale ed Ambientale, CUP: B36J14001230007.</p><p><strong> </strong><strong>References</strong></p><p>Bagarello, V., Castellini, M., Di Prima, S., Iovino, M. 2014. Soil hydraulic properties determined by infiltration experiments and different heights of water pouring. Geoderma, 213, 492–501. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2013.08.032</p>

Effect of stones on soil hydraulic properties: measurement and modeling

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahyar Naseri ◽  
Sascha C. Iden ◽  
Wolfgang Durner
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Soil Temperature ◽  
Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Evaporation Rate ◽  
Sandy Loam ◽  
Stage Ii ◽  
Richards Equation ◽  
Water Retention Curve ◽  
Soil Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Soil Hydraulic

<p>Stony soils are soils that contain a high amount of stones and are widespread all over the world.  The effective soil hydraulic properties (SHP), i.e. the water retention curve (WRC) and the hydraulic conductivity curve (HCC) are influenced by the presence of stones in the soil. This influence is normally neglected in vadose zone modeling due to the considerable measurement challenges in stony soils. The available data on the effect of stones on SHP is scarce and there is not a systematic modeling approach to obtain the effective SHP in stony soils. Most of the past studies are limited to the effect of stones on the WRC and saturated hydraulic conductivity and low and medium stone contents (up to 40 % v/v). We investigated the effect of stone content on the effective SHP of stony soils through a series of evaporation experiments. Two soil materials a) sandy loam and b) silt loam as background soils were packed with different volumetric contents (0, 10, 30 and 60 %) of medium stones were in containers with a volume of 5060 cm<sup>3</sup>. Volumetric stone contents were chosen in a way to present stone-free, moderately stony and highly stony soils. All of the experiments were carried out in two replicate packings with an almost identical bulk density. Packed samples were saturated with water from the bottom and subjected to evaporation in a climate-controlled room. During the evaporation experiments, the pressure head and soil temperature were continuously monitored and the water loss from the soil columns was measured with a balance. The dewpoint method provided additional data on the WRC in the dry soil. The resulting data were evaluated by inverse modeling with the Richards equation to identify effective SHP and to analyze the effect of stone content on the evaporation rate, soil temperature, the effective WRC and the effective HCC. The applied methodology was successful in identifying effective SHP with high precision over the full moisture range. The results reveal a quicker transition from stage I to stage II of evaporation in highly stony soils. Evaporation rate reduces with the increase of the volumetric stone content. The existence of a high amount of stone content shorten stage II of evaporation driven by the vapor diffusion through the restricted soil evaporative surface.</p>

scholarly journals The role of biochar particle size and hydrophobicity in improving soil hydraulic properties

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ifeoma Edeh ◽  
Ondřej Mašek
Keyword(s):  
Particle Size ◽  
Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Water Retention ◽  
Sandy Loam ◽  
Particle Sizes ◽  
Soil Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Soil Water Retention ◽  
Soil Hydraulic

<p>The physical properties of biochar have been shown to dramatically influence its performance as a soil amendment. Biochar particle size is one of key parameters, as it controls its specific surface area, shape, and pore distribution. Therefore, this study assessed the role of biochar particle size and hydrophobicity in controlling soil water movement and retention. Softwood pellet biochar in five particle size ranges (>2 mm, 2 – 0.5 mm, 0.5 – 0.25 mm, 0.25 – 0.063mm and <0.063 mm) was used for the experiment. These particle sizes were tested on 2 soil types (sandy loam and loamy sand) at four different application rates (1, 2, 4 and 8%).  Our results showed that biochar hydrophobicity increased with decreasing biochar particle size, leading to a reduction in its water retention capacity. The effect of biochar on soil hydraulic properties varied with different rate of application and particle sizes. With increasing rate of application, water retention increased while hydraulic conductivity decreased. Water content at field capacity, permanent wilting point, and the available water content increased with increasing biochar particle size. The soil hydraulic conductivity increased with decreasing particle sizes apart from biochar particles <0.063mm which showed a significant (p≤0.05) decrease compared to the larger particle sizes. The results clearly showed that both biochar intra-porosity and inter-porosity are important factors affecting soil hydraulic properties. Biochar interpores affected mainly hydraulic conductivity, both interpores and intrapores controlled soil water retention properties. Our results suggest that for a more effective increase in soil water retention in sandy loam and loamy sand, the use of hydrophilic biochar with high intra-porosity is recommended.</p>

scholarly journals Analysis of Hydraulic Properties of Indian Forest Soil

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Shwetha Prasanna
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Spatial Variability ◽  
Soil Properties ◽  
Forest Soil ◽  
Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Water Retention ◽  
Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Soil Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Soil Hydraulic ◽  
High Degree

Soils are a product of the factors of formation and continuously change over the earth’s surface. The analysis of the spatial variability of soil properties is important for land management and construction of an ecological environment. Soils are characterized by high degree of spatial variability due to the combined effect of physical, chemical or biological processes that operate with different intensities and at different scales. The spatial variability of soil hydraulic properties helps us to find the subsurface flux of water. The most frequently used hydraulic properties are soil water retention curve and saturated hydraulic conductivity. Both these hydraulic properties exhibit a high degree of spatial and temporal variability. The primary objective of this study was to analyze the spatial variability of hydraulic properties of forest soils of Pavanje river basin. Correlation analysis technique has been used to analyze various soil properties. Spatial variability of the forested hillslope soils at different depths varied considerably among the soil hydraulic properties. The spatial variability of water retention at all the different pressure head is low at the top layers, and increases towards the bottom layers. The saturated hydraulic conductivity is almost same in the top layers, but more in the bottom layers of forest soil.

scholarly journals River Buffer Effectiveness in Controlling Surface Runoff Based on Saturated Soil Hydraulic Conductivity

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 2383
Author(s):  
Hatma Suryatmojo ◽  
Ken’ichirou Kosugi
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Surface Runoff ◽  
Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Canopy Cover ◽  
Selective Logging ◽  
Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Soil Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Soil Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Soil Hydraulic

In tropical Indonesia, rainforests are managed by an intensive forest management system (IFMS). The IFMS has promoted selective logging for timber harvesting and intensive line planting to enrich the standing stock. The implementation of the IFMS has reduced the forest canopy cover, disturbed the surface soil, changed the soil hydraulic properties, and increased direct runoff and soil erosion. Investigation of the IFMS impact on soil hydraulic properties and the generation of surface runoff using a saturated hydraulic conductivity model is needed. Soil hydraulic properties were investigated on 11 plots, including one virgin forest plot and 10 plots at different operational periods of the IFMS. A two-dimensional saturated soil water flow simulation was applied to generate surface runoff from different periods of the IFMS. The main parameters of canopy cover, net rainfall, and saturated hydraulic conductivity were used in the simulations. A simulation scenario of a surface runoff hydrograph in different forest operations was used to analyze the river buffer effectiveness. The results showed that fundamental IFMS activities associated with mechanized selective logging and intensive line planting have reduced the soil hydraulic conductivity within the near-surface profile. The recovery time for near-surface Ks on non-skidder tracks was between 10 and 15 years, whereas on the skidder tracks it was more than 20 years. Forest disturbances have altered the typical surface hydrological pathways, thereby creating the conditions for more surface runoff on disturbed surfaces than on undisturbed surfaces. Maintaining the buffer area is an effective means to reduce the peak discharge and surface runoff in the stream channel.

scholarly journals Impact of freeze–thaw cycles on soil structure and soil hydraulic properties

SOIL ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-191
Author(s):  
Frederic Leuther ◽  
Steffen Schlüter
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Soil Structure ◽  
Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Initial Structure ◽  
Soil Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Freeze Thaw ◽  
Frost Action ◽  
Unsaturated Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Soil Hydraulic ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. The ploughing of soils in autumn drastically loosens the soil structure and, at the same time, reduces its stability against external stresses. A fragmentation of these artificially produced soil clods during wintertime is often observed in areas with air temperatures fluctuating around the freezing point. From the pore perspective, it is still unclear (i) under which conditions frost action has a measurable effect on soil structure, (ii) what the impact on soil hydraulic properties is, and (iii) how many freeze–thaw cycles (FTCs) are necessary to induce soil structure changes. The aim of this study was to analyse the cumulative effects of multiple FTC on soil structure and soil hydraulic properties for two different textures and two different initial structures. A silt clay with a substantial amount of swelling clay minerals and a silty loam with fewer swell/shrink dynamics were either kept intact in undisturbed soil cores taken from the topsoil from a grassland or repacked with soil clods taken from a ploughed field nearby. FTCs were simulated under controlled conditions and changes in pore structure ≥ 48 µm were regularly recorded using X-ray µCT. After 19 FTCs, the impact on hydraulic properties were measured, and the resolution of structural characteristics were enhanced towards narrow macropores with subsamples scanned at 10 µm. The impact of FTC on soil structure was dependent on the initial structure, soil texture, and the number of FTCs. Frost action induced a consolidation of repacked soil clods, resulting in a systematic reduction in pore sizes and macropore connectivity. In contrast, the macropore systems of the undisturbed soils were only slightly affected. Independent of the initial structure, a fragmentation of soil clods and macro-aggregates larger than 0.8 to 1.2 mm increased the connectivity of pores smaller than 0.5 to 0.8 mm. The fragmentation increased the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of all treatments by a factor of 3 in by a factor of 3 in a matrix potential range of −100 to −350 hPa, while water retention was only slightly affected for the silt clay soil. Already 2 to 5 FTCs enforced a well-connected pore system of narrow macropores in all treatments, but it was steadily improved by further FTCs. The implications of fewer FTCs during milder winters caused by global warming are twofold. In ploughed soils, the beneficial seedbed consolidation will be less intense. In grassland soils, which have reached a soil structure in dynamic equilibrium that has experienced many FTCs in the making, there is still a beneficial increase in water supply through increasing unsaturated hydraulic conductivity by continued FTCs that might also be less efficient in the future.

euptfv2: updated hydraulic pedotransfer functions for Europe

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brigitta Szabó ◽  
Melanie Weynants ◽  
Tobias Weber
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Soil Properties ◽  
Water Content ◽  
Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Field Capacity ◽  
Pedotransfer Functions ◽  
Predictor Variables ◽  
Soil Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Matric Potential ◽  
Soil Hydraulic

<p>We present improved European hydraulic pedotransfer functions (PTFs) which now use the machine learning algorithm random forest and include prediction uncertainties. The new PTFs (euptfv2) are an update of the previously published euptfv1 (Tóth et al., 2015). With the derived hydraulic PTFs soil hydraulic properties and van Genuchten-Mualem model parameters can be predicted from easily available soil properties. The updated PTFs perform significantly better than euptfv1 and are applicable for 32 predictor variables combinations. The uncertainties reflect uncertainties from the considered input data, predictors and the applied algorithm. The euptfv2 includes transfer functions to compute soil water content at saturation (0 cm matric potential head), field capacity (both -100 and -330 cm matric potential head) and wilting point (-15,000 cm matric potential head), plant available water content computed with field capacity at -100 and -330 cm matric potential head, saturated hydraulic conductivity, and Mualem-van Genuchten parameters of the moisture retention and hydraulic conductivity curves. The influence of predictor variables on predicted soil hydraulic properties is explored and suggestions to best predictor variables given.</p><p>The algorithms have been implemented in a web interface (https://ptfinterface.rissac.hu) and an R package (https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.3759442) to facilitate the use of the PTFs, where the PTFs’ selection is automated based on soil properties available for the predictions and required soil hydraulic property.</p><p>The new PTFs will be applied to derive soil hydraulic properties for field- and catchment- scale hydrological modelling in European case studies of the OPTAIN project (https://www.optain.eu/). Functional evaluation of the PTFs is performed under the iAqueduct research project.</p><p> </p><p>This research has been supported by the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (grant no. KH124765), the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (grant no. BO/00088/18/4), and the German Research Foundation (grant no. SFB 1253/12017). OPTAIN is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Program for research and innovation under Grant Agreement No. 862756.</p>

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