Comparison of the inverse modeling approach and traditional methods to estimate the unsaturated hydraulic properties in a sandy loam soil

The aim of this work is to compare the use of the inverse solution approach in the estimation of soil hydraulic properties with traditional tension disk infiltrometer (TDI) data analysis, field retention data and commonly used pedotransfer functions (PTFs). Field data were collected in an experimental plot located at Bahía Blanca, Argentina. Field infiltration under saturated conditions was measured by the inverse auger hole method and infiltration under unsaturated conditions were carried out with TDI. Field retention data (θ(h)) were also collected periodically. The HYDRUS 2D/3D software was used to optimize soil hydraulic parameters by inverse solution according to TDI data. The saturated hydraulic conductivity measured by inverse auger hole method (5.53 cm.h-1) and calculated by Wooding analytical approach (5.35 cm.h-1) and inverse numerical simulations (5.36 cm.h-1) showed very close values. According to macroporosity estimates infiltrated water is mainly conducted through soils micro and mesopores. Macropores only channeled 15.9% of total infiltrated flow. Soil water retention curves (SWRC) predicted by PTFs did not represented correctly field retention data. The best adjustment between water content at specific pressure heads predicted by SWRCs and field measured water content was reached by the TDI inverse solution approach (RMSE: 0.050 cm3.cm-3). The inverse solution approach probed to be a simple and practical method to obtain an accurate estimate of both, SWRC and hydraulic conductivity curve.

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Ensemble pedotransfer functions to derive hydraulic properties for New Zealand soils

Soil Research ◽

10.1071/sr12338 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 51 (2) ◽

pp. 94 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

Rogerio Cichota ◽

Iris Vogeler ◽

Val O. Snow ◽

Trevor H. Webb

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Water Content ◽

Hydraulic Properties ◽

Production Systems ◽

Clay Content ◽

Pedotransfer Functions ◽

Future Research ◽

Soil Parameters ◽

Soil Hydraulic

Modelling water and solute transport through soil requires the characterisation of the soil hydraulic functions; however, determining these functions based on measurements is time-consuming and costly. Pedotransfer functions (PTFs), which make use of easily measurable soil properties to predict the hydraulic functions, have been proposed as an alternative to measurements. The better known and more widely used PTFs were developed in the USA or Europe, where large datasets exist. No specific PTFs have been published for New Zealand soils. To address this gap, we evaluated a range of published PTFs against an available dataset comprising a range of different soils from New Zealand and selected the best PTFs to construct an ensemble PTF (ePTF). Assessment (and adjustment when required) of published PTFs was done by comparing measurements and estimates of soil water content and the hydraulic conductivity at selected matric suction values. For each point, the best two or three PTFs were chosen to compose the ePTF, with correcting constants if needed. The outputs of the ePTF are the hydraulic properties at selected matric suctions, akin to obtaining measurements, thus allowing the fit of different equations as well as combining any available measurements. Testing of the ePTF showed promising performance, with reasonably accurate estimates of the water retention of an independent dataset. Root mean square error values averaged 0.06 m3 m–3 for various New Zealand soils, which is within the accuracy level of published PTF studies. The largest errors were found for soils with high clay content, for which the ePTF should be used with care. The performance of the ePTF for estimating soil hydraulic conductivity was not as reliable as for water content, exhibiting large scatter. Predictions of saturated hydraulic conductivity were of the same magnitude as the measurements, whereas the unsaturated values were generally under-predicted. The conductivity data available for this study were limited and highly variable. The estimates for hydraulic conductivity should therefore be used with much care, and future research should address measurements and analysis to improve the predictions. The ePTF was also used to parameterise the SWIM soil module for use in Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) simulations. Comparisons of drainage predicted by APSIM against results from lysimeter experiments suggest that the use of the derived ePTF is suited for the estimation of soil parameters for use in modelling. The ePTF is not envisaged as a substitute for measurements but is a useful tool to complement datasets with limited amounts of measured data.

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

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-4117 ◽

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

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 &#8211; 0.5 mm, 0.5 &#8211; 0.25 mm, 0.25 &#8211; 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%).&#160; 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&#8804;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.

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euptfv2: updated hydraulic pedotransfer functions for Europe

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-904 ◽

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

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 (T&#243;th 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.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&#8217; selection is automated based on soil properties available for the predictions and required soil hydraulic property.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.&#160;This research has been supported by the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (grant no. KH124765), the J&#225;nos 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&#8217;s Horizon 2020 Program for research and innovation under Grant Agreement No. 862756.

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

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-4564 ◽

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

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.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.We carried out water retention and hydraulic conductivity measurements with two tensiometers introduced in two different heights in a cylindrical compartment (250 cm&#179;) containing a loamy sand, either with or without the introduction of a 20 &#181;m 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 &#181;m d-1 at 20% volumetric water content.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.We conclude that water extractability from soils distant to roots can be facilitated under dry conditions when AMF hyphae are present.&#160;

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Effect of stones on soil hydraulic properties: measurement and modeling

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-670 ◽

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

Stony soils are soils that contain a high amount of stones and are widespread all over the world. &#160;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 cm3. 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.

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Studying Unimodal, Bimodal, PDI and Bimodal-PDI Variants of Multiple Soil Water Retention Models: II. Evaluation of Parametric Pedotransfer Functions Against Direct Fits

Water ◽

10.3390/w12030896 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 896 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Amir Haghverdi ◽

Hasan Sabri Öztürk ◽

Wolfgang Durner

Keyword(s):

Water Content ◽

Soil Water ◽

Water Retention ◽

Organic Matter Content ◽

Pedotransfer Functions ◽

Model Parameters ◽

Retention Data ◽

Soil Water Retention ◽

Data Set ◽

Free Parameters

A high-resolution soil water retention data set (81 repacked soil samples with 7729 observations) measured by the HYPROP system was used to develop and evaluate the performance of regression parametric pedotransfer functions (PTFs). A total of sixteen soil hydraulic models were evaluated including five unimodal water retention expressions of Brooks and Corey (BC model), Fredlund and Xing (FX model), Kosugi (K model), van Genuchten with four free parameters (VG model) and van Genuchten with five free parameters (VGm model). In addition, eleven bimodal, Peters–Durner–Iden (PDI) and bimodal-PDI variants of the original expressions were studied. Six modeling scenarios (S1 to S6) were examined with different combinations of the following input predictors: soil texture (percentages of sand, silt and clay), soil bulk density, organic matter content, percent of stable aggregates and saturated water content (θs). Although a majority of the model parameters showed low correlations with basic soil properties, most of the parametric PTFs provided reasonable water content estimations. The VGm parametric PTF with an RMSE of 0.034 cm3 cm−3 was the best PTF when all input predictors were considered. When averaged across modeling scenarios, the PDI variant of the K model with an RMSE of 0.045 cm3 cm−3 showed the highest performance. The best performance of all models occurred at S6 when θs was considered as an additional input predictor. The second-best performance for 11 out of the 16 models belonged to S1 with soil textural components as the only inputs. Our results do not recommend the development of parametric PTFs using bimodal variants because of their poor performance, which is attributed to their high number of free parameters.

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Parametric soil water retention models: a critical evaluation of expressions for the full moisture range

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ◽

10.5194/hess-22-1193-2018 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 22 (2) ◽

pp. 1193-1219 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Raneem Madi ◽

Gerrit Huibert de Rooij ◽

Henrike Mielenz ◽

Juliane Mai

Keyword(s):

Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Soil Water ◽

Water Retention ◽

Minor Effect ◽

Residual Water ◽

Retention Data ◽

General Criterion ◽

Soil Water Retention ◽

Retention Curve ◽

Soil Hydraulic

Abstract. Few parametric expressions for the soil water retention curve are suitable for dry conditions. Furthermore, expressions for the soil hydraulic conductivity curves associated with parametric retention functions can behave unrealistically near saturation. We developed a general criterion for water retention parameterizations that ensures physically plausible conductivity curves. Only 3 of the 18 tested parameterizations met this criterion without restrictions on the parameters of a popular conductivity curve parameterization. A fourth required one parameter to be fixed. We estimated parameters by shuffled complex evolution (SCE) with the objective function tailored to various observation methods used to obtain retention curve data. We fitted the four parameterizations with physically plausible conductivities as well as the most widely used parameterization. The performance of the resulting 12 combinations of retention and conductivity curves was assessed in a numerical study with 751 days of semiarid atmospheric forcing applied to unvegetated, uniform, 1 m freely draining columns for four textures. Choosing different parameterizations had a minor effect on evaporation, but cumulative bottom fluxes varied by up to an order of magnitude between them. This highlights the need for a careful selection of the soil hydraulic parameterization that ideally does not only rely on goodness of fit to static soil water retention data but also on hydraulic conductivity measurements. Parameter fits for 21 soils showed that extrapolations into the dry range of the retention curve often became physically more realistic when the parameterization had a logarithmic dry branch, particularly in fine-textured soils where high residual water contents would otherwise be fitted.

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Prediction of three key hydraulic properties in a soil survey of a small forested catchment

Soil Research ◽

10.1071/sr01036 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 40 (2) ◽

pp. 191 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

D. A. O'Connell ◽

P. J. Ryan

Keyword(s):

Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Water Content ◽

Bulk Density ◽

Hydraulic Properties ◽

Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Soil Survey ◽

Coarse Grained ◽

Pedotransfer Functions ◽

Explanatory Variables ◽

Tree Models

Direct measurement of ψ(θ) and K(θ) relationships at all observation sites in soil survey is not feasible. Three key hydraulic properties — water content at field capacity (θ–5 kPa), water content at wilting point (θ–1.5 MPa), and saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) — can be used to derive K(θ) and ψ(θ) when combined with bulk density. These properties were measured in 'calibration' horizons in a soil survey in Yambulla State Forest in south-east New South Wales. Pedotransfer functions (PTFs) for predicting θ-5 kPa, θ–1.5 MPa, and Ks from the physical and morphologic soil attributes are presented and evaluated here. Models for predicting θ–5 kPa and θ–1.5 MPa relied on per cent clay. An R2 of 0.64 (for θ–5 kPa) to 0.67 (for θ–1.5 MPa) was obtained for linear regressions using only morphologic explanatory variables. An R2 of 0.73 (for θ–5 kPa) to 0.90 (for θ–1.5 MPa) was obtained if laboratory-measured clay content was included as an explanatory variable. Ks was measured in situ using well permeameters, and used for developing PTFs. Large cores were taken from a small subsample of horizons and measurements of Ks, K–0.1 kPa, K–0.2 kPa, and K–0.5 kPa were made in the laboratory. Ks measurements from well permeameters were similar to K-0.5 kPa from laboratory measurements. Regression and tree models were used to predict Ks. The linear regression had an R2 of 0.55, while the tree models accounted for approximately 40&percnt; reduction in deviance. Bulk density was the most useful predictor in all Ks models. The inclusion of per cent rock fragments, bulk density, and estimated percentage clay as useful explanatory variables demonstrated the utility of functional descriptors not routinely measured in soil survey. The models are empirical and were locally calibrated for use in a soil survey. They may be applicable in target domains similar to the source domain (i.e. coarse-grained adamellite soils in similar climatic regimes). surrogates, saturated hydraulic conductivity, K(θ), ψ(θ), Ks, pedotransfer functions, soil survey, soil morphology, PTF.

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Estimating soil hydraulic properties from saturation to complete dryness

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-10481 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Budiman Minasny ◽

Rudiyanto Rudiyanto ◽

Federico Maggi

Keyword(s):

Soil Moisture ◽

Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Soil Water ◽

Hydraulic Properties ◽

Water Retention ◽

Pedotransfer Functions ◽

Soil Hydraulic Properties ◽

Soil Moisture Dynamics ◽

Soil Hydraulic ◽

Moisture Dynamics

To study the effect of drought on soil water dynamics, we need an accurate description of water retention and hydraulic conductivity from saturation to complete dryness. Recent studies have demonstrated the inaccuracy of conventional soil hydraulic models, especially in the dry end. Likewise, current pedotransfer functions (PTFs) for soil hydraulic properties are based on the classical Mualem-van Genuchten functions.This study will evaluate models that estimate soil water retention and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity curves in full soil moisture ranges. An example is the Fredlund-Xing scaling model coupled with the hydraulic conductivity model of Wang et al. We will develop pedotransfer functions that can estimate parameters of the model. We will compare it with existing PTFs in predicting water retention and hydraulic conductivity.The results show that a new suite of PTFs that used sand, silt, clay, and bulk density can be used successfully to predict water retention and hydraulic conductivity over a range of moisture content. The prediction of hydraulic properties is used in a soil water flow model to simulate soil moisture dynamics under drought. This study demonstrates the importance of accurate hydraulic model prediction for a better description of soil moisture dynamics.&#160;

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The influence of microplastic on soil hydraulic properties

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-9337 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Patrizia Hangele ◽

Katharina Luise Müller ◽

Hannes Laermanns ◽

Christina Bogner

Keyword(s):

Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Soil Water ◽

Hydraulic Properties ◽

Water Retention ◽

Pore Space ◽

Water Retention Curve ◽

Soil Hydraulic Properties ◽

Soil Water Retention ◽

Soil Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Soil Hydraulic

The need to study the occurrence and effects of microplastic (MP) in different ecosystems has become apparent by a variety of studies in the past years. Until recently, research regarding MP in the environment has mainly focused on marine systems. Within terrestrial systems, studies suggest soils to be the biggest sink for MP. Some studies now started to explore the presence of MP in soils. However, there is a substantial lack of the basic mechanistic understanding of the behaviour of MP particles within soils.This study investigates how the presence of MP in soils affects their hydraulic properties. In order to understand these processes, experiments are set up under controlled laboratory conditions as to set unknown influencing variables to a minimum. Different substrates, from simple sands to undisturbed soils, are investigated in soil cylinders. MP particles of different sizes and forms of the most common plastic types are applied to the surface of the soil cylinders and undergo an irrigation for the MP particles to infiltrate. Soil-water retention curves and soil hydraulic conductivity are measured before and after the application of MP particles. It is hypothesised that the infiltrated MP particles clog a part of the pore space and should thus reduce soil hydraulic conductivity and change the soil-water retention curve of the sample. Knowledge about the influence of MP on soil hydraulic properties are crucial to understand transport and retention of MP in soils.

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