Effects of Zanthoxylum bungeanum planting on soil hydraulic properties and soil moisture in a karst area

2021 ◽  
Vol 257 ◽  
pp. 107125
Author(s):  
Ziqi Liu ◽  
Kaiping Li ◽  
Kangning Xiong ◽  
Yuan Li ◽  
Jin Wang ◽  
...  
Biologia ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Horst Gerke ◽  
Rolf Kuchenbuch

AbstractPlants can affect soil moisture and the soil hydraulic properties both directly by root water uptake and indirectly by modifying the soil structure. Furthermore, water in plant roots is mostly neglected when studying soil hydraulic properties. In this contribution, we analyze effects of the moisture content inside roots as compared to bulk soil moisture contents and speculate on implications of non-capillary-bound root water for determination of soil moisture and calibration of soil hydraulic properties.In a field crop of maize (Zea mays) of 75 cm row spacing, we sampled the total soil volumes of 0.7 m × 0.4 m and 0.3 m deep plots at the time of tasseling. For each of the 84 soil cubes of 10 cm edge length, root mass and length as well as moisture content and soil bulk density were determined. Roots were separated in 3 size classes for which a mean root porosity of 0.82 was obtained from the relation between root dry mass density and root bulk density using pycnometers. The spatially distributed fractions of root water contents were compared with those of the water in capillary pores of the soil matrix.Water inside roots was mostly below 2–5% of total soil water content; however, locally near the plant rows it was up to 20%. The results suggest that soil moisture in roots should be separately considered. Upon drying, the relation between the soil and root water may change towards water remaining in roots. Relations depend especially on soil water retention properties, growth stages, and root distributions. Gravimetric soil water content measurement could be misleading and TDR probes providing an integrated signal are difficult to interpret. Root effects should be more intensively studied for improved field soil water balance calculations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 9303
Author(s):  
Shuhai Wen ◽  
Ming’an Shao ◽  
Jiao Wang

Earthworm activity has become more important in the Loess Plateau, where hydrological processes are crucial for ecosystem sustainability. In this study, we conducted a laboratory microcosm experiment to determine the various burrowing activities of Eisenia fetida and their impact on the soil hydraulic properties in response to different levels of soil moisture (50%, 70%, 90% of field capacity) in two common soil types (loessial and Lou soil) obtained from the Loess Plateau. Burrowing activity of E. fetida increased with higher soil moisture and was greater in loessial than in Lou soil. Most burrowing activities occurred within the top 5 cm and decreased with increasing soil depth. Macropores and burrow branching, which are highly related to the earthworm burrowing, were more prevalent in wetter soil. Earthworms significantly altered the formation of large soil aggregates (AGL, diameter >2 mm) under different soil moistures and depths. Distinct earthworm burrowing activities, controlled by soil moisture, altered soil hydraulic properties. However, soil saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) showed little differences between different treatments due to the horizontal and high–branched burrows of E. fetida, although higher burrowing activities were found in wetter soil. Soil field capacity was highest in drier soil due to the less macropores and burrowing activities.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wang ◽  
Wang ◽  
Zhang

Knowledge of both state (e.g., soil moisture) and flux (e.g., actual evapotranspiration (ETa) and groundwater recharge (GR)) hydrological variables across vadose zones is critical for understanding ecohydrological and land-surface processes. In this study, a one-dimensional process-based vadose zone model with generated soil hydraulic parameters was utilized to simulate soil moisture, ETa, and GR. Daily hydrometeorological data were obtained from different climate zones to drive the vadose zone model. On the basis of the field phenomenon of soil moisture temporal stability, reasonable soil moisture spatiotemporal structures were reproduced from the model. The modeling results further showed that the dependence of ETa and GR on soil hydraulic properties varied considerably with climatic conditions. In particular, the controls of soil hydraulic properties on ETa and GR greatly weakened at the site with an arid climate. In contrast, the distribution of mean relative difference (MRD) of soil moisture was still significantly correlated with soil hydraulic properties (most notably residual soil moisture content) under arid climatic conditions. As such, the correlations of MRD with ETa and GR differed across different climate regimes. In addition, the simulation results revealed that samples with average moisture conditions did not necessarily produce average values of ETa and GR (and vice versa), especially under wet climatic conditions. The loose connection between average state and flux hydrological variables across vadose zones is partly because of the high non-linearity of subsurface processes, which leads to the complex interactions of soil moisture, ETa, and GR with soil hydraulic properties. This study underscores the importance of using soil moisture information from multiple sites for inferring areal average values of ETa and GR, even with the knowledge of representative sites that can be used to monitor areal average moisture conditions.


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