scholarly journals Calculation of available water supply in crop root zone and the water balance of crops

2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 285-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Haberle ◽  
Pavel Svoboda

Abstract Determination of the water supply available in soils for crops is important for both the calculation of water balance and the prediction of water stress. An approach to calculations of available water content in layers of the root zone, depletion of water during growth, and water balance, with limited access to data on farms, is presented. Soil water retention was calculated with simple pedotransfer functions from the texture of soil layers, root depth, and depletion function were derived from observed data; and the potential evapotranspiration was calculated from the temperature. A comparison of the calculated and experimental soil water contents showed a reasonable fit.

1985 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. G. Giles ◽  
T. A. Black ◽  
D. L. Spittlehouse

Coefficients for the calculation of soil water balance components at seven sites on a forested slope were determined using only measurements of daily solar irradiance, maximum and minimum air temperature and rainfall, and weekly root zone soil water content during a 2-year period. Site parameters required were root zone depth, soil water retention characteristics, and rainfall interception coefficients. Based on daytime net radiation, the Priestley–Taylor evapotranspiration coefficient (α) was found to be 0.73 ± 0.07, which is similar to values reported in other conifer forest studies. Growing season water deficit increased with decreasing root zone water storage capacity, which was mainly a function of root zone depth. A comparison between high and low elevations on the slope showed 100-year site indices ranging from 17 to 53 m corresponding to growing season soil water deficits during the driest year of the study, ranging from 79 to 4 mm. Basal area annual increments were found to be correlated with soil water deficits and growing season transpiration, both for the study period and when both variables were averaged over the last 18 years.


1975 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 170-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. J. KRISTENSEN ◽  
S. E. JENSEN

A model for calculating the daily actual evapotranspiration based on the potential one is presented. The potential evapotranspiration is reduced according to vegetation density, water content in the root zone, and the rainfall distribution. The model is tested by comparing measured (EAm) and calculated (EAc) evapotranspirations from barley, fodder sugar beets, and grass over a four year period. The measured and calculated values agree within 10 %. The model also yields information on soil water content and runoff from the root zone.


2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 730-743 ◽  
Author(s):  
João Carlos Medeiros ◽  
Miguel Cooper ◽  
Jaqueline Dalla Rosa ◽  
Michel Grimaldi ◽  
Yves Coquet

Knowledge of the soil water retention curve (SWRC) is essential for understanding and modeling hydraulic processes in the soil. However, direct determination of the SWRC is time consuming and costly. In addition, it requires a large number of samples, due to the high spatial and temporal variability of soil hydraulic properties. An alternative is the use of models, called pedotransfer functions (PTFs), which estimate the SWRC from easy-to-measure properties. The aim of this paper was to test the accuracy of 16 point or parametric PTFs reported in the literature on different soils from the south and southeast of the State of Pará, Brazil. The PTFs tested were proposed by Pidgeon (1972), Lal (1979), Aina & Periaswamy (1985), Arruda et al. (1987), Dijkerman (1988), Vereecken et al. (1989), Batjes (1996), van den Berg et al. (1997), Tomasella et al. (2000), Hodnett & Tomasella (2002), Oliveira et al. (2002), and Barros (2010). We used a database that includes soil texture (sand, silt, and clay), bulk density, soil organic carbon, soil pH, cation exchange capacity, and the SWRC. Most of the PTFs tested did not show good performance in estimating the SWRC. The parametric PTFs, however, performed better than the point PTFs in assessing the SWRC in the tested region. Among the parametric PTFs, those proposed by Tomasella et al. (2000) achieved the best accuracy in estimating the empirical parameters of the van Genuchten (1980) model, especially when tested in the top soil layer.


2007 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 868-878 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raghavendra B. Jana ◽  
Binayak P. Mohanty ◽  
Everett P. Springer

1987 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-406
Author(s):  
C. Dirksen

With closed, high-frequency irrigation systems, the water supply can be tailored to the instant needs of plants. To be able to do this optimally, it is necessary to understand how plants interact with their environment. To study water uptake under a variety of non-uniform conditions in the root zone, lucerne was grown in laboratory soil columns with automated gamma ray attenuation, tensiometer and salinity sensor equipment to measure soil water contents, pressure potentials and osmotic potentials, respectively. The columns were irrigated with water of different salinity at various frequencies and leaching fractions. This paper presents results obtained in a column irrigated daily with water of conductivity 0.33 S/m (h0 = -13.2 m) at a target leaching fraction of 0.08. This includes the drying and wetting patterns under daily irrigations in deficit and excess of evapotranspiration, respectively. After 230 days the salination of the column had still not reached a steady state. Salinity increased rapidly with depth and root water uptake was shallow for the deep-rooting lucerne. Water and salt transport under daily irrigation cannot be described without taking hysteresis of soil water retention into account. The data presented are suitable for testing various water uptake models, once numerical water and salt transport models of the required complexity are operational. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission)


2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-301
Author(s):  
Amjad T. Assi ◽  
Rabi H. Mohtar ◽  
Erik F. Braudeau ◽  
Cristine L. S. Morgan

Abstract. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of the pedostructure concept to determine the soil available water capacity, specifically the field capacity (FC). Pedostructure describes the soil aggregate structure and its thermodynamic interaction with water. Specifically, this work compared the calculation of soil water-holding properties based on the pedostructure concept with other standard methods for determining FC and permanent wilting point (PWP). The standard methods evaluated were the FAO texture estimate (FAO method), the Saxton-Rawls pedotransfer functions (PTFs method), and the water content at predefined soil suction (330 and 15,000 hPa) as measured with a pressure plate apparatus (PP method). Additionally, two pedostructure methods were assessed: the thermodynamic water retention curve (TWRC method) and the thermodynamic pedostructure (TPC method). Undisturbed loamy fine sand soil from a field in Millican, Texas, was analyzed at both the Ap and E horizons. The results showed that the estimated water content at FC and PWP for the three standard methods and for the TWRC method were in relative agreement. However, the TPC method used characteristic transition points in the modeled contents of different water pools in the soil aggregate and was higher for the Ap horizon, but in agreement with the other methods for the E horizon. For example, for the Ap horizon of the soil analyzed in this study, the FC estimated with the standard and TWRC methods ranged from 0.073 to 0.150 m3H2O m-3soil, while the TPC method estimate was 0.221 m3H2O m-3soil. Overall, the different methods showed good agreement in estimating the available water; however, the results also showed some variations in these estimates. It is clear that the TPC method has advantages over the other methods in considering the soil aggregate structure and modeling the soil water content within the aggregate structure. The thermodynamic nature of the TPC method enabled the use of both the soil shrinkage curve and the water retention curve in a weakly structured soil. It is expected that the TPC method would provide more comprehensive advances in understanding the soil water-holding properties of structured soils with higher clay contents. Keywords: Available water, Field capacity, Pedostructure, Pedotransfer functions, Permanent wilting point.


Author(s):  
João H. Caviglione

ABSTRACT One big challenge for soil science is to translate existing data into data that is needed. Pedotransfer functions have been proposed for this purpose and they can be point or parametric when estimating the water retention characteristics. Many indicators of soil physical quality have been proposed, including the S-Index proposed by Dexter. The objective of this study was to assess the use of pedotransfer functions for soil water retention to estimate the S-index under field conditions in the diversity of soils of the Paraná state. Soil samples were collected from 36 sites with textures ranging from sandy to heavy clay in the layers of 0-0.10 and 0.10-0.20 m and under two conditions (native forest and cultivated soil). Water content at six matric potentials, bulk density and contents of clay, sand and silt were determined. Soil-water retention curve was fitted by the van Genuchten-Mualem model and the S-index was calculated. S-index was estimated from water retention curves obtained by the pedotransfer function of Tomasella (point and parametric). Although the coefficient of determination varied from 0.759 to 0.895, modeling efficiency was negative and the regression coefficient between observed and predicted data was different from 1 in all comparisons. Under field conditions in the soil diversity of the Paraná state, restrictions were found in S-index estimation using the evaluated pedotransfer functions.


1985 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 701-707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan J. Riha ◽  
Gaylon S. Campbell

A model was developed to estimate water fluxes in Douglas-fir (Pseudotsugamenziesii (Mirb.) Franco) plantations using daily measurements of precipitation and maximum and minimum air temperatures. Soil water flow was modeled using a one-dimensional finite element solution to the Richards equation, with precipitation and root uptake of water included as source and sink terms. Soil hydraulic properties varied as a function of depth. Root uptake of water was based on an analog water uptake model modified to include root resistance and cylindrical flow of water. Potential evapotranspiration was calculated assuming leaf and air temperature did not differ and assuming stomatal conductance was dependent on the vapor density deficit of the air. Model validity was tested by comparing predictions with field measurements of soil water content made in the summer of 1978 at two locations in western Washington. In general, the model predicted the observed drying of the soil. Aspects of the simulated water budget for these Douglas-fir stands considered most significant were (i) the use of soil-stored water for transpiration in the summer, (ii) the net flux of water into the root zone from deeper in the soil during the summer, (iii) the dependence of water reaching the soil in the summer on the intensity of rainfall, (iv) the large percentage of the total transpiration that occurred in spring and fall, and (v) the large amount of water moving out of the soil profile in the winter.


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