scholarly journals Efficient organic mulch thickness for soil and water conservation in urban areas

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bing Wang ◽  
Jianzhi Niu ◽  
Ronny Berndtsson ◽  
Linus Zhang ◽  
Xiongwen Chen ◽  
...  

AbstractThe use of organic mulch is important for urban green applications. For urban areas in arid and semiarid regions receiving short high-intensive rainfall, rainfall characteristics, and soil slope play an important role for mulch functioning. These properties of mulch were studied. For this purpose, rainfall simulation experiments using organic mulching were conducted in Jiufeng National Forestry Park to analyze the influence of organic mulch under different slope and heavy rainfall events. The results showed that soil water content displayed a decreasing tendency with increasing mulch application. Compared to bare soil, a mulch application of 0.25 kg/m2 and 0.50 kg/m2 led to maximum soil water content and maximum runoff decrease occurred for 0.50 kg/m2 mulch. Higher application rate of mulch displayed less soil water content and greater runoff. The runoff amount and runoff generation rate decreased by 28–83% and 21–83%, respectively, as compared to bare soil. With a mulch application of 0.25–1.00 kg/m2, soil drainage accounted for 56–60% of total rainfall. Overall, an efficient mulch application was found to be 0.25–0.50 kg/m2. The results of this study are relevant for arid and semiarid urban regions that experience heavy rainfall.

2005 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 1013-1016
Author(s):  
Reiji KIMURA ◽  
Yuanbo LIU ◽  
Naru TAKAYAMA ◽  
Makio KAMICHIKA ◽  
Nobuhiro MATSUOKA ◽  
...  

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Karuma ◽  
Peter Mtakwa ◽  
Nyambilila Amuri ◽  
Charles K. Gachene ◽  
Patrick Gicheru

Soil water conservation through tillage is one of the appropriate ways of addressing soil moisture deficit in rainfed agriculture. This study evaluated the effects of tillage practices on soil moisture conservation and crop yields in Mwala District, Eastern Kenya during the long rains (LR) and short rains (SR) of 2012/13. Six tillage systems: Disc plough (MB), Disc plough and harrowing (MBH), Ox-ploughing (OX), Subsoiling – ripping (SR), Hand hoe and Tied Ridges (HTR) and Hand hoe only (H) and, three cropping systems namely, sole maize, sole bean and maize - bean intercrop, were investigated in a split-plot design with four replicates. Data on soil water content was monitored at different weeks after planting and the crop yields at end of each growing season. A three-season average shows that soil water content and crop yields were higher in conventional tillage methods compared to the conservation tillage methods. Long term tillage experiments are thus required at different locations, under various environmental and soil conditions to validate the study findings.


1991 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 1271-1279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randall J. Charbeneau ◽  
Robert G. Asgian

1999 ◽  
Vol 56 (4 suppl) ◽  
pp. 1215-1221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Durval Dourado-Neto ◽  
Luís Carlos Timm ◽  
Julio Cesar Martins de Oliveira ◽  
Klaus Reichardt ◽  
Osny Oliveira Santos Bacchi ◽  
...  

The state-space approach is used to describe surface soil water content and temperature behaviour, in a field experiment in which sugarcane is submitted to different management practices. The treatments consisted of harvest trash mulching, bare soil, and burned trash, all three in a ratoon crop, after first cane harvest. One transect of 84 points was sampled, meter by meter, covering all treatments and borders. The state-space approach is described in detail and the results show that soil water contents measured along the transect could successfully be estimated from water content and temperature observations made at the first neighbour.


2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanuar Chandra Wirasembada ◽  
Budi Indra Setiawan ◽  
Satyanto Krido Saptomo

Runoff is one of flood and erosion causal factor in Indonesia. Runoff occurred when rainfall cannot be infiltrated and flowed on the ground surface. Cidanau watershed has quite high rainfall average (2573 mm/year) so it has high runoff potential. Zero Runoff System (ZROS) is one of water conservation way which can infiltrate runoff to the ground using permeation structures. ZROS’s successful parameter in order to decreasing runoff rate can be observed by the soil water content differences before and after ZROS application. Soil water content estimation was conducted by water balance model with and without runoff and then it is compared with soil water content from measuring. The simulation results indicated that soil water content in the research field before and after ZROS application is 0.476 and 0.569 m3/m3 respectively. The simulation is also conducted for past 10 years (2004-2013) and resulted higher soil water content if ZROS were applied. This results indicates that ZROS capable to decrease and permeate runoff to the ground and then increase soil water content level. Water balance model with and without runoff has coefficient of determination (R2) 0.606. It means that this model could simulate the soil water content differences before and after ZROS application valid relatively.


2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaas Oostindie ◽  
Louis W. Dekker ◽  
Jan G. Wesseling ◽  
Violette Geissen ◽  
Coen J. Ritsema

Abstract Soil water content and actual water repellency were assessed for soil profiles at two sites in a bare and grasscovered plot of a sand pasture, to investigate the impact of the grass removal on both properties. The soil of the plots was sampled six times in vertical transects to a depth of 33 cm between 23 May and 7 October 2002. On each sampling date the soil water contents were measured and the persistence of actual water repellency was determined of field-moist samples. Considerably higher soil water contents were found in the bare versus the grass-covered plots. These alterations are caused by differences between evaporation and transpiration rates across the plots. Noteworthy are the often excessive differences in soil water content at depths of 10 to 30 cm between the bare and grass-covered plots. These differences are a consequence of water uptake by the roots in the grass-covered plots. The water storage in the upper 19 cm of the bare soil was at least two times greater than in the grass-covered soil during dry periods. A major part of the soil profile in the grass-covered plots exhibited extreme water repellency to a depth of 19 cm on all sampling dates, while the soil profile of the bare plots was completely wettable on eight of the twelve sampling dates. Significant differences in persistence of actual water repellency were found between the grass-covered and bare plots.


HortScience ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 688-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinmin Fu ◽  
Jack Fry ◽  
Bingru Huang

Deficit irrigation is increasingly used to conserve water, but its impact on turfgrass rooting has not been well documented. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of deficit irrigation on ‘Falcon II’ tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) root characteristics in the field using a minirhizotron imaging system. The experiment was conducted on a silt loam soil from the first week of June to mid-Sept. 2001 and 2002 using a mobile rainout shelter under which turf received applications of 20%, 60%, or 100% of actual evapotranspiration (ET) twice weekly. Neither soil water content (0 to 25 cm) nor tall fescue rooting between 4.1- and 50.1-cm depths was affected by irrigation at 60% compared with 100% ET. Despite consistently lower soil water content, tall fescue irrigated at 20% ET exhibited an increase in root parameters beginning in July or August. Tall fescue subjected to 20% ET irrigation had greater total root length and surface area on two of five monitoring dates in 2002 compared with that receiving 100% ET. Evaluation of tall fescue rooting by depth indicated that root proliferation at 20% ET was occurring between 8.7- and 36.3-cm depths. As evaluated under the conditions of this experiment, turfgrass managers using deficit irrigation as a water conservation strategy on tall fescue should not be concerned about a reduction in rooting deep in the soil profile, and irrigation at 20% ET may result in root growth enhancement.


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