Effects of the roots ofCynodon dactylonandSchefflera heptaphyllaon water infiltration rate and soil hydraulic conductivity

Termites are undoubtedly amongst the most important soil macroinvertebrate decomposers in semi-arid environments in India. However, in this specific type of environment, the influence of termite foraging activity on soil functioning remains unexplored. Therefore, this study examines the link between the quality of litter and the functional impact of termite feeding preferences on soil properties and soil hydraulic conductivity in a deciduous forest in southern India. Different organic resources (elephant dung: “ED”, elephant grass: “EG”, acacia leaves: “AL” and layers of cardboard: “CB”) were applied on repacked soil cores. ED appeared to be the most attractive resource to Odontotermes obesus, leading to a larger amount of soil sheeting (i.e., the soil used by termites for covering the litter they consume), more numerous and larger holes in the ground and a lower soil bulk density. As a consequence, ED increased the soil hydraulic conductivity (4-fold) compared with the control soil. Thus, this study highlights that the more O. obesus prefers a substrate, the more this species impacts soil dynamics and water infiltration in the soil. This study also shows that ED can be used as an efficient substrate for accelerating the infiltration of water in southern-Indian soils, mainly through the production of galleries that are open on the soil surface, offering new perspectives on termite management in this environment.

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Determination of Spatial and Temporal Variability of Soil Hydraulic Conductivity for Urban Runoff Modelling

Water ◽

10.3390/w11050941 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (5) ◽

pp. 941 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Matej Radinja ◽

Ines Vidmar ◽

Nataša Atanasova ◽

Matjaž Mikoš ◽

Mojca Šraj

Keyword(s):

Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Temporal Variability ◽

Water Repellency ◽

Infiltration Rate ◽

Control Measures ◽

Soil Conditions ◽

Spatial And Temporal Variability ◽

Soil Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Soil Hydraulic

Soil hydraulic conductivity has a direct influence on infiltration rate, which is of great importance for modelling and design of surface runoff and stormwater control measures. In this study, three measuring techniques for determination of soil hydraulic conductivity were compared in an urban catchment in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Double ring (DRI) and dual head infiltrometer (DHI) were applied to measure saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) and mini disk infiltrometer (MDI) was applied to measure unsaturated hydraulic conductivity (K), which was recalculated in Ks in order to compare the results. Results showed significant differences between investigated techniques, namely DHI showed 6.8 times higher values of Ks in comparison to DRI. On the other hand, Ks values obtained by MDI and DRI exhibited the lowest difference. MDI measurements in 12 locations of the small plot pointed to the spatial variability of K ranging between 73%–89% as well as to temporal variability within a single location of 27%–99%. Additionally, a reduction of K caused by the effect of drought-induced water repellency was observed. Moreover, results indicate that hydrological models could be enhanced using different scenarios by employing a range of K values based on soil conditions.

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A software to calculate soil hydraulic conductivity in internal drainage experiments (SHC, Version 2.00)

Revista Brasileira de Ciência do Solo ◽

10.1590/s0100-06832007000500037 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 31 (5) ◽

pp. 1219-1222 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Durval Dourado Neto ◽

Klaus Reichardt ◽

Adriana Lúcia da Silva ◽

Osny Oliveira Santos Bacchi ◽

Luis Carlos Timm ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Unsaturated Soil ◽

Soil Profile ◽

Field Experiments ◽

Water Infiltration ◽

Internal Drainage ◽

Soil Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Soil Hydraulic

A software for the calculation of unsaturated soil hydraulic conductivity K(theta) is presented for commonly used methods found in the literature, based on field experiments in which a soil profile is submitted to water infiltration followed by internal drainage. The software is available at: [email protected].

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Assessing Water Infiltration and Soil Water Repellency in Brazilian Atlantic Forest Soils

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app10061950 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (6) ◽

pp. 1950 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Sergio Esteban Lozano-Baez ◽

Miguel Cooper ◽

Silvio Frosini de Barros Ferraz ◽

Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues ◽

Laurent Lassabatere ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Soil Water ◽

Atlantic Forest ◽

Water Repellency ◽

Water Infiltration ◽

Brazilian Atlantic Forest ◽

Soil Water Repellency ◽

Soil Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Soil Hydraulic ◽

Remnant Forest

This study presents the results of the soil hydraulic characterization performed under three land covers, namely pasture, 9-year-old restored forest, and remnant forest, in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Two types of infiltration tests were performed, namely tension (Mini-Disk Infiltrometer, MDI) and ponding (Beerkan) tests. MDI and Beerkan tests provided complementary information, highlighting a clear increase of the hydraulic conductivity, especially at the remnant forest plots, when moving from near-saturated to saturated conditions. In addition, measuring the unsaturated soil hydraulic conductivity with different water pressure heads allowed the estimation of the macroscopic capillary length in the field. This approach, in conjunction with Beerkan measurements, allowed the design better estimates of the saturated soil hydraulic conductivity under challenging field conditions, such as soil water repellency (SWR). This research also reports, for the first time, evidence of SWR in the Atlantic Forest, which affected the early stage of the infiltration process with more frequency in the remnant forest.

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Assessing Water Infiltration and Soil Water Repellency in Brazilian Atlantic Forest Soils

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-22580 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Sergio Esteban Lozano-Baez ◽

Miguel Cooper ◽

Silvio Frosini de Barros Ferraz ◽

Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues ◽

Mirko Castellini ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Soil Water ◽

Atlantic Forest ◽

Water Repellency ◽

Water Infiltration ◽

Brazilian Atlantic Forest ◽

Soil Water Repellency ◽

Soil Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Soil Hydraulic ◽

Remnant Forest

<p>This study presents the results of the soil hydraulic characterization performed under three land covers, namely pasture, 9-year-old restored forest, and remnant forest, in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Two types of infiltration tests were performed, namely tension (Mini-Disk Infiltrometer, MDI) and ponding (Beerkan) tests. MDI and Beerkan tests provided a complementary information, highlighting a clear increase of the hydraulic conductivity, especially at the remnant forest plots, when moving from near-saturated to saturated conditions. In addition, measuring the unsaturated soil hydraulic conductivity with different water pressure heads also allowed to estimate the macroscopic capillary length in the field. This approach, in conjunction with Beerkan measurements, allowed to generate better estimates of the saturated soil hydraulic conductivity under challenging field conditions, such as soil water repellency (SWR). This research also reports for the first time evidence of SWR in the Atlantic Forest, which affected the early stage of the infiltration process with more frequency in the remnant forest.</p>

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Estimating hydraulic conductivity of a crusted loamy soil from beerkan experiments in a Mediterranean vineyard

10.5194/soil-2016-79 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Vincenzo Alagna ◽

Vincenzo Bagarello ◽

Simone Di Prima ◽

Fabio Guaitoli ◽

Massimo Iovino ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Vegetation Cover ◽

Soil Surface ◽

Rainfall Event ◽

Water Infiltration ◽

Insertion Depth ◽

Soil Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Soil Hydraulic ◽

The Impact

Abstract. In bare soils of semi-arid areas, surface crusting is a rather common phenomenon due to the impact of raindrops. Water infiltration measurements under ponding conditions constitute a common way for an approximate characterization of crusted soils. In this study, the impact of crusting on soil hydraulic conductivity was assessed in a Mediterranean vineyard (western Sicily, Italy) under conventional tillage. The BEST (Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters) algorithm was applied to the infiltration data to obtain the hydraulic conductivity of crusted and uncrusted soils. Soil hydraulic conductivity was found to vary during the year and also spatially (i.e., rows vs. inter-rows) due to crusting, tillage and vegetation cover. A 55 mm rainfall event resulted in a decrease of the saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, Ks, by a factor close to two in the inter-row areas, due to the formation of a crusted layer at the surface. The same rainfall event did not determine a Ks reduction in the row areas (i.e., Ks reduced by a non-significant factor of 1.05) because the vegetation cover intercepted the raindrops and therefore prevented alteration of the soil surface. The developed ring insertion methodology on crusted soil, implying pre-moistening through the periphery of the sampled surface, together with the very small insertion depth of the ring (0.01 m) prevented visible fractures. Consequently, beerkan tests carried out along and between the vine-rows and data analysis by the BEST algorithm allowed to assess crusting-dependent reductions in hydraulic conductivity with extemporaneous measurements alone. Testing the beerkan infiltration run in other crusted soils and establishing comparisons with other experimental methodologies appear advisable to increase confidence on the reliability of the method, that seems suitable to allow simple characterization of crusted soils.

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Analysis of Land Use Change and Its Impact on the Hydrology of Kakia and Esamburmbur Sub-Watersheds of Narok County, Kenya

Hydrology ◽

10.3390/hydrology6040086 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

pp. 86

Author(s):

Nzitonda Marie Mireille ◽

Hosea M. Mwangi ◽

John K. Mwangi ◽

John Mwangi Gathenya

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Land Cover ◽

Land Cover Change ◽

Flood Risk ◽

Infiltration Rate ◽

Land Use Land Cover ◽

Soil Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Soil Hydraulic

Narok town is one of the places in Kenya which experience catastrophic floods. Many lives have been lost and valuable property destroyed in recent years. Change in land use/land cover upstream of the town area may have contributed significantly to the severity and frequency of flooding events. Runoff, which contributes to floods in Narok town, comes from Kakia and Esamburmbur sub-catchments of Enkare Narok watershed. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of land use/land cover change on the hydrology of Kakia and Esamburmbur sub-watersheds. To detect land use/land cover change, Landsat satellite images from 1985 to 2019 were used. Using supervised classification in Erdas Imagine 2014, land use of the study area was classified into four classes, i.e., forest, rangeland, agriculture and built-up areas. Five land use maps (1985, 1995, 2000, 2010, and 2019) were developed and used to perform land use change analysis. There was rampart conversion of forest to other land uses. Between 1985 and 2019, the forest and rangeland declined by 40.3% and 25.6% of the study area, respectively, while agriculture and built-up areas increased by 55.2% and 10.6% of the study area respectively. Analysis of soil hydrological properties indicate that the infiltration rate and soil hydraulic conductivity were greatest in forest than in other land use types. The basic infiltration rate in forest land was 89.1 cm/h while in rangeland and agricultural land, it was 7.9 cm/h and 15 cm/h respectively. At the top-soil layer, average soil hydraulic conductivity under forest was 46.3 cm/h, under rangeland, 2.6 cm/h and under agriculture, 4.9 cm/h. The low hydraulic conductivity in rangeland and agriculture was attributed to compaction by farm machinery (tractors) and livestock respectively. An interesting observation was made in rangelands where the top layer (0–20 cm) had a higher bulk density and a lower hydraulic conductivity as compared to the next deeper layer (20–40 cm). This was attributed to the combined impact of compaction and localised pressure by hooves of livestock which only have an impact on the top layer. The findings of this study show that land use has a major impact on soil hydrological properties and imply that the observed land use changes negatively affected the soil hydrological properties of the watershed. The decreased infiltration in the increasing areas of degraded land (mainly agriculture and rangeland) and increase in built-up area in Narok town are the possible causes of the increased flood risk in Narok town. It is recommended that flood risk management strategies in Narok town include watershed management to enhance water infiltration.

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Using Beerkan experiments to estimate hydraulic conductivity of a crusted loamy soil in a Mediterranean vineyard

Journal of Hydrology and Hydromechanics ◽

10.2478/johh-2018-0023 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 67 (2) ◽

pp. 191-200 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Vincenzo Alagna ◽

Vincenzo Bagarello ◽

Simone Di Prima ◽

Fabio Guaitoli ◽

Massimo Iovino ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Vegetation Cover ◽

Rainfall Event ◽

Water Infiltration ◽

Insertion Depth ◽

Infiltration Process ◽

Soil Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Soil Hydraulic ◽

The Impact

AbstractIn bare soils of semi-arid areas, surface crusting is a rather common phenomenon due to the impact of raindrops. Water infiltration measurements under ponding conditions are becoming largely applied techniques for an approximate characterization of crusted soils. In this study, the impact of crusting on soil hydraulic conductivity was assessed in a Mediterranean vineyard (western Sicily, Italy) under conventional tillage. The BEST (Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters) algorithm was applied to the infiltration data to obtain the hydraulic conductivity of crusted and uncrusted soils. Soil hydraulic conductivity was found to vary during the year and also spatially (i.e., rows vs. inter-rows) due to crusting, tillage and vegetation cover. A 55 mm rainfall event resulted in a decrease of the saturated soil hydraulic conductivity,Ks, by a factor of 1.6 in the inter-row areas, due to the formation of a crusted layer at the surface. The same rainfall event did not determine aKsreduction in the row areas (i.e.,Ksdecreased by a non-significant factor of 1.05) because the vegetation cover intercepted the raindrops and therefore prevented alteration of the soil surface. The developed ring insertion methodology on crusted soil, implying pre-moistening through the periphery of the sampled surface, together with the very small insertion depth of the ring (0.01 m), prevented visible fractures. Consequently, Beerkan tests carried out along and between the vine-rows and data analysis by the BEST algorithm allowed to assess crusting-dependent reductions in hydraulic conductivity with extemporaneous measurements alone. The reliability of the tested technique was also confirmed by the results of the numerical simulation of the infiltration process in a crusted soil. Testing the Beerkan infiltration run in other crusted soils and establishing comparisons with other experimental methodologies appear advisable to increase confidence on the reliability of the method that seems suitable for simple characterization of crusted soils.

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Soil pore characteristics, morphology, and soil hydraulic conductivity following land subsidence caused by extraction of deep confined groundwater in Xi'an, China: Quantitative analysis based on X-ray micro-computed tomography

Soil and Tillage Research ◽

10.1016/j.still.2021.105018 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 211 ◽

pp. 105018

Author(s):

Kun Yu ◽

Luchen Wang ◽

Yang Duan ◽

Maosheng Zhang ◽

Ying Dong ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Computed Tomography ◽

Quantitative Analysis ◽

Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Land Subsidence ◽

Micro Computed Tomography ◽

Pore Characteristics ◽

Soil Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

X Ray ◽

Soil Hydraulic

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Simplified estimation of unsaturated soil hydraulic conductivity using bulk electrical conductivity and particle size distribution

Soil Research ◽

10.1071/sr12158 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 51 (1) ◽

pp. 23 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Mohammad Reza Neyshabouri ◽

Mehdi Rahmati ◽

Claude Doussan ◽

Boshra Behroozinezhad

Keyword(s):

Electrical Conductivity ◽

Particle Size ◽

Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Particle Size Distribution ◽

Size Distribution ◽

Unsaturated Soil ◽

Soil Core ◽

Soil Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Core Samples ◽

Soil Hydraulic

Unsaturated soil hydraulic conductivity K is a fundamental transfer property of soil but its measurement is costly, difficult, and time-consuming due to its large variations with water content (θ) or matric potential (h). Recently, C. Doussan and S. Ruy proposed a method/model using measurements of the electrical conductivity of soil core samples to predict K(h). This method requires the measurement or the setting of a range of matric potentials h in the core samples—a possible lengthy process requiring specialised devices. To avoid h estimation, we propose to simplify that method by introducing the particle-size distribution (PSD) of the soil as a proxy for soil pore diameters and matric potentials, with the Arya and Paris (AP) model. Tests of this simplified model (SM) with laboratory data on a broad range of soils and using the AP model with available, previously defined parameters showed that the accuracy was lower for the SM than for the original model (DR) in predicting K (RMSE of logK = 1.10 for SM v. 0.30 for DR; K in m s–1). However, accuracy was increased for SM when considering coarse- and medium-textured soils only (RMSE of logK = 0.61 for SM v. 0.26 for DR). Further tests with 51 soils from the UNSODA database and our own measurements, with estimated electrical properties, confirmed good agreement of the SM for coarse–medium-textured soils (<35–40% clay). For these textures, the SM also performed well compared with the van Genuchten–Mualem model. Error analysis of SM results and fitting of the AP parameter showed that most of the error for fine-textured soils came from poorer adequacy of the AP model’s previously defined parameters for defining the water retention curve, whereas this was much less so for coarse-textured soils. The SM, using readily accessible soil data, could be a relatively straightforward way to estimate, in situ or in the laboratory, K(h) for coarse–medium-textured soils. This requires, however, a prior check of the predictive efficacy of the AP model for the specific soil investigated, in particular for fine-textured/structured soils and when using previously defined AP parameters.

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