Evaluating dispersive potential to identify the threshold electrolyte concentration in non-dispersive soils

Soil Research ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (6) ◽  
pp. 549 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Dang ◽  
J. Bennett ◽  
A. Marchuk ◽  
A. Biggs ◽  
S. Raine

Use of non-traditional and marginal quality saline sodic water will increase in water limited environments and methods to assess use suitability are required. The threshold electrolyte concentration (CTH) defines the soil solution concentration, for a given soil solution sodicity, at which an acceptable reduction in the soil hydraulic conductivity (10–25%) is maintained without further soil structural degradation. The traditional method of determining CTH is via leaching columns, which are laborious and often expensive. Dispersive potential (PDIS) is potentially a more rapid method with which to determine the CTH in a practical sense and make management recommendations for water quality use on a given soil. This work evaluated the PDIS method against known CTH data to determine the efficacy of use for non-dispersive soils irrigated with marginal quality saline sodic water. Results suggest that the PDIS approach to CTH did not reliably, or efficiently, determine the CTH in non-dispersive soils equilibrated with an irrigation solution. Using it to determine the aggregation and dispersion boundary for initially non-dispersive soil appeared to have merit, but only where the aggregates equilibrated with the irrigation solution were subject to rapid dilution with deionised water.

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 1365-1377 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. O. Rappe-George ◽  
A. I. Gärdenäs ◽  
D. B. Kleja

Abstract. Addition of mineral nitrogen (N) can alter the concentration and quality of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in forest soils. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of long-term mineral N addition on soil solution concentration of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) in Stråsan experimental forest (Norway spruce) in central Sweden. N was added yearly at two levels of intensity and duration: the N1 treatment represented a lower intensity but a longer duration (43 yr) of N addition than the shorter N2 treatment (24 yr). N additions were terminated in the N2 treatment in 1991. The N treatments began in 1967 when the spruce stands were 9 yr old. Soil solution in the forest floor O, and soil mineral B, horizons were sampled during the growing seasons of 1995 and 2009. Tension and non-tension lysimeters were installed in the O horizon (n = 6), and tension lysimeters were installed in the underlying B horizon (n = 4): soil solution was sampled at two-week intervals. Although tree growth and O horizon carbon (C) and N stock increased in treatments N1 and N2, the concentration of DOC in O horizon leachates was similar in both N treatments and control. This suggests an inhibitory direct effect of N addition on O horizon DOC. Elevated DON and nitrate in O horizon leachates in the ongoing N1 treatment indicated a move towards N saturation. In B horizon leachates, the N1 treatment approximately doubled leachate concentrations of DOC and DON. DON returned to control levels, but DOC remained elevated in B horizon leachates in N2 plots nineteen years after termination of N addition. We propose three possible explanations for the increased DOC in mineral soil: (i) the result of decomposition of a larger amount of root litter, either directly producing DOC or (ii) indirectly via priming of old SOM, and/or (iii) a suppression of extracellular oxidative enzymes.


1992 ◽  
Vol 117 (3) ◽  
pp. 422-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly A. Williams ◽  
Paul V. Nelson

Seven organic materials including 1) the bacterium Brevibacterium lactofermentum (Okumura et al.) in a nonviable state, 2) a mixture of two bacteria, Bacillus licheniformis (Weigmann) and Bacillus subtilis (Ehrenberg), plus the fungus Aspergillus niger (van Tieghem) in a nonviable state, 3) an activated microbial sludge from waste-water treatment, 4) sludge from a poultry manure methane generator, 5) unsteamed bonemeal, 6) aged pine needles, and 7) poultry feathers were evaluated to determine their pattern and term of N release and the possibility of using them as an integral part of root media releasing N at a steady, low rate over 10 to 12 weeks for production of Dendranthema × grandiflorum (Ramat.) Kitamura `Sunny Mandalay'. These were compared to the inorganic slow-release fertilizer micro Osmocote (17N-3.9P-10.8K) and a weekly liquid fertilizer control. All organic sources released N most rapidly during the first 2 weeks, followed by a decline, which ended at 6 to 7 weeks. Brevibacterium lactofermentum, bonemeal, and micro Osmocote treatments resulted in about equal growth, which was similar to growth of a weekly liquid fertilizer control for 9 weeks in the first and for 12 weeks in the second experiment. The period of N release could not be extended through increased application rate of source due to the high initial release rate. It was not possible to lower source application rates to achieve an effective, low soil solution concentration due to the large variation in release rate over time. Efficiency of N use varied among plants grown in media treated with various microorganismal sources and was highest in those treated with B. lactofermentum. Nitrogen release from ground poultry feathers was inadequate, and additions of the viable hydrolyzing bacterium B. licheniformis to feathers failed to increase soil solution N levels. Attempts to retard mineralization of B. lactofermentum by cross-linking proteins contained within the bacterium by means of heat treatment at 116C vs. 82C failed. While anaerobic poultry manure sludge proved to be an inefficient source of N, it provided large amounts of P. Organic sources released primarily ammoniacal N, which raised the medium pH by as much as one unit, necessitating the use of less limestone in the medium formulation.


Author(s):  
Peter B. Tinker ◽  
Peter Nye

We discussed in chapter 4 the movement of solute between small volumes of soil, and in chapter 5 some properties of plant roots and associated hairs, particularly the relation between the rate of uptake at the root surface and the concentration of solute in the ambient solution. In the chapters to follow, we consider the plant root in contact with the soil, and deal with their association in increasingly complex situations; first, when the root acts merely as a sink and, second, when it modifies its relations with the surrounding soil by changing its pH, excreting ions, stimulating microorganisms, or developing mycorrhizas. In this chapter, we take the simplest situation that can be studied in detail, namely, a single intact root alone in a volume of soil so large that it can be considered infinite. The essential transport processes occurring near the root surface are illustrated in figure 6.1. We have examined in chapter 3 the rapid dynamic equilibrium between solutes in the soil pore solution and those sorbed on the immediately adjacent solid surfaces. These sorbed solutes tend to buffer the soil solution against changes in concentration induced by root uptake. At the root surface, solutes are absorbed at a rate related to their concentration in the soil solution at the boundary (section 5.3.2); and the root demand coefficient, αa, is defined by the equation . . . I = 2παaCLa (6.1) . . . where I = inflow (rate of uptake per unit length), a = root radius, CLa = concentration in solution at the root surface. To calculate the inflow, we have to know CLa, and the main topic of this chapter is the relation between CLa, and the soil pore solution concentration CL. The root also absorbs water at its surface due to transpiration (chapter 2) so that the soil solution flows through the soil pores, thus carrying solutes to the root surface by mass flow (convection). Barber et al. (1962) calculated whether the nutrients in maize could be acquired solely by this process, by multiplying the composition of the soil solution by the amount of water the maize had transpired.


Soil Research ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 515 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Vogeler ◽  
B. E. Clothier ◽  
S. R. Green

In order to examine whether the electrolyte concentration in the soil solution can be estimated by time domain reflectometry (TDR) measured bulk soil electrical conductivity, column leaching experiments were performed using undisturbed soil columns during unsaturated steady-state water flow. The leaching experiments were carried out on 2 soils with contrasting pedological structure. One was the strongly structured Ramiha silt loam, and the other the weakly structured Manawatu fine sandy loam. Transport parameters obtained from the effluent data were used to predict the transient pattern in the resident electrolyte concentration measured by TDR. The electrolyte concentration was inferred from the TDR-measured bulk soil electrical conductivity using 2 different calibration approaches: one resulting from continuous solute application, and the other by direct calibration. Prior to these, calibration on repacked soil columns related TDR measurements to both the volumetric water content and the electrolyte concentration that is resident in the soil solution. The former calibration technique could be used successfully to describe solute transport in both soils, but without predicting the absolute levels of solute. The direct calibration method only provided good estimates of the resident concentration, or electrolyte concentration, in the strongly structured top layer of the Ramiha soil. This soil possessed no immobile water. For the less-structured layer of the Ramiha, and the weakly structured Manawatu soil, only crude approximations of the solute concentration in the soil were found, with measurement errors of up to 50%. The small-scale pattern of electrolyte movement of these weakly structured soils appears to be quite complex.


Geophysics ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 65 (5) ◽  
pp. 1560-1568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tsili Wang ◽  
Michael L. Oristaglio

The finite‐difference time‐domain method is adapted to simulate radar surveys of objects buried in dispersive soils whose complex permittivity depends on frequency. The method treats dispersion through the constitutive relation between the electric field vector and the electric displacement vector, which is a convolution in the time domain. This convolution is updated recursively, along with Maxwell’s equations, after approximating the dispersion with a Debye (exponential) relaxation model. A novel feature of our work is the inclusion of dispersion in the perfectly‐matched layer formulation of Maxwell’s equations, which gives an absorbing boundary condition for dispersive media. We simulate 200-MHz ground‐penetrating radar surveys over metallic and plastic pipes buried at a depth of 2 m in soils whose electrical properties model are those of clay loams of different moisture contents. Radar reflections modeled for pipes in dispersive soil differ from those for pipes in soils whose electrical properties are constant (at the values of dispersive soil at the central frequency of the radar pulse). Because the permittivity decreases at higher frequencies in the soils modeled, energy in the reflections shifts toward the front of the waveform, and the amplitudes of trailing lobes in the waveform are suppressed. The effects are subtle, but become more pronounced in models of soils with 10% moisture content by weight.


2007 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W. Bauder ◽  
Kimberly R. Hershberger ◽  
Linzy S. Browning

Soil Research ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 547 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Aydemir ◽  
N. F. Najjar

In this study, gypsum, a common amendment for sodic soil reclamation, was compared with langbeinite, a lesser used and known mineral. A column leaching experiment using sodic water was conducted on a sodic, non-saline soil (fine, montmorillonitic, thermic Ruptic Vertic Albaqualf) dominated by smectitic clays. Soil was amended with gypsum and langbeinite at rates equivalent to exchangeable Na at soil depths of 0.15 and 0.30 m. The soil water at depths of 0.75, 0.15, and 0.225 m and the effluent from each column were collected at intervals of 12 h and analysed for soluble bases. Sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) was calculated from soluble salts. Saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) was calculated. At the end of the experiment, soil samples were removed from each column in 4 depth increments. Significantly less exchangeable Na and lower SAR of the soil water was found in the lower sections of the soil columns, and Ksat was greater for the amended treatments than for the control. High solubility of the langbeinite resulted in the highest Ksat value, with possible increase in electrolyte concentration and reduction of clay swelling and dispersion in the first 12 h. However, there was no significant difference in reclamation efficiency between equivalent rates of 2 amendments throughout the experiment. This experiment indicated that factors influencing the decision about using either amendment should be availability of the product, the seasonal fluctuation in price, required reclamation time, and the crop needs for Ca or Mg and K.


1990 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. MALIK ◽  
D. S. H. DRENNAN

Experiments were conducted to obtain a better understanding of the role of pH on the availability of fluridone (1-methyl-3-phenyl-5-[3-(trifluoromethyl) phenyl]-4(1 H)-pyridinone) in soil solution when used as a selective herbicide and the partitioning into aqueous and sediment phases when employed for aquatic plant control. Phytotoxicity of fluridone to seedling sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) plants increased with increasing pH of the sand-nutrient solution medium. Since stability and plant uptake of fluridone by bioassay plants were not affected by solution pH, the increasing phytotoxicity at basic pH was attributed to less adsorption and hence higher availability of the herbicide in solution. Soil adsorption studies with 14C-fluridone confirmed this trend, as the soil solution concentration at equilibrium increased from 0.091 to 0.258 μg mL−1 and from 0.216 to 0.354 μg mL−1, respectively, as pH of a sandy loam and silty clay loam increased from 3 to 9. In contrast, adsorption on the sandy loam and silty clay loam for the same pH range decreased from 4.108 to 2.435 μg g−1 and from 2.850 to 1.484 μg g−1, respectively. Smaller but significant changes in adsorption were also observed for an organic soil over this range. Key words: Herbicide, fluridone, pH, uptake, soil adsorption


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document