scholarly journals Soil protecting effect of the surface cover in extreme summer periods  

2013 ◽  
Vol 59 (No. 9) ◽  
pp. 404-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Kalmár ◽  
L. Bottlik ◽  
I. Kisić ◽  
C. Gyuricza ◽  
M. Birkás

It was to investigate the effects of mulch cover and stubble tillage on soil water content and to assess grounds of recommendations in stubble management in an extreme dry period. Tests were carried out in undisturbed (U) soil, after shallow (S) and deep (D) tillage, soil with (UCO, SCO, DCO) and without surface cover (UCL, SCL, DCL) and after conventional stubble treatment (STR). Effective moisture conservation (8–11%) was observed in undisturbed soil under 55% and 65% cover ratios. The water content in the top 0.65 m soil layer increased significantly (LSD, P < 0.05) between the different stubble variants, the following order was established on day 85: DCL < STR < SCL < UCL < DCO < SCO < UCO. The conventional stubble management cannot be applied in soils after shallow (STR) or deep tillage (DCL) in a dry season, when the loss of water is even statistically proven. Leaving the soil without a cover (UCL) or having it with insufficient cover (< 15%) entails risks in soils. Increasing the soil cover ratio (from 5% to 75%) had a 1.3–2.3 times stronger impact on crumb forming than did the moisture recorded in the various seasons.

2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 1704-1713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moacir Tuzzin de Moraes ◽  
Henrique Debiasi ◽  
Julio Cezar Franchini ◽  
Vanderlei Rodrigues da Silva

The soil penetration resistance is an important indicator of soil compaction and is strongly influenced by soil water content. The objective of this study was to develop mathematical models to normalize soil penetration resistance (SPR), using a reference value of gravimetric soil water content (U). For this purpose, SPR was determined with an impact penetrometer, in an experiment on a Dystroferric Red Latossol (Rhodic Eutrudox), at six levels of soil compaction, induced by mechanical chiseling and additional compaction by the traffic of a harvester (four, eight, 10, and 20 passes); in addition to a control treatment under no-tillage, without chiseling or additional compaction. To broaden the range of U values, SPR was evaluated in different periods. Undisturbed soil cores were sampled to quantify the soil bulk density (BD). Pedotransfer functions were generated correlating the values of U and BD to the SPR values. By these functions, the SPR was adequately corrected for all U and BD data ranges. The method requires only SPR and U as input variables in the models. However, different pedofunctions are needed according to the soil layer evaluated. After adjusting the pedotransfer functions, the differences in the soil compaction levels among the treatments, previously masked by variations of U, became detectable.


Author(s):  
F. Matejka ◽  
K. Střelcová ◽  
T. Hurtalová ◽  
E. Gömöryová ◽  
L’. Ditmarová

PeerJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. e11766
Author(s):  
Mao Yang ◽  
Runya Yang ◽  
Yanni Li ◽  
Yinghua Pan ◽  
Junna Sun ◽  
...  

The aim of this study was to find a material suited for the prevention of evaporative water loss and salt accumulation in coastal saline soils. One-dimensional vertical water infiltration and phreatic evaporation experiments were conducted using a silty loam saline soil. A 3-cm-thick layer of corn straw, biochar, and peat was buried at the soil depth of 20 cm, and a 6-cm-thick layer of peat was also buried at the same soil depth for comparison. The presence of the biochar layer increased the upper soil water content, but its ability to inhibit salt accumulation was poor, leading to a high salt concentration in the surface soil. The 3-cm-thick straw and 6-cm-thick peat layers were most effective to inhibit salt accumulation, which reduced the upper soil salt concentration by 96% and 93%, respectively. However, the straw layer strongly inhibited phreatic evaporation and resulted in low water content in the upper soil layer. Compared with the straw layer, the peat layer increased the upper soil water content. Thus, burying a 6-cm-thick peat layer in the coastal saline soil is the optimal strategy to retain water in the upper soil layer and intercept salt in the deeper soil layer.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 860-870 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Li ◽  
Jian-feng Zhang ◽  
Si-yuan Xiong ◽  
Rui-xi Zhang

Abstract Assessing the spatial variability of soil water content is important for precision agriculture. To measure the spatial variability of the soil water content and to determine the optimal number of sampling sites for predicting the mean soil water content at different stages of the irrigation cycle, field experiments were carried out in a potato field in northwestern China. The soil water content was measured in 2016 and 2017 at depths of 0–20 and 20–40 cm at 116 georeferenced locations. The average coefficient of variation of the soil water content was 20.79% before irrigation and was 16.44% after irrigation at a depth of 0–20 cm. The spatial structure of the soil water content at a depth of 20–40 cm was similar throughout the irrigation cycle, but at a depth of 0–20 cm a relatively greater portion of the variation in the soil water content was spatially structured before irrigation than after irrigation. The autocorrelation of soil water contents was influenced by irrigation only in the surface soil layer. To accurately predict mean soil moisture content, 40 and 20 random sampling sites should be chosen with errors of 5% and 10%, respectively.


2012 ◽  
Vol 550-553 ◽  
pp. 1340-1344
Author(s):  
Ren Kuan Liao ◽  
Pei Ling Yang ◽  
Shu Mei Ren ◽  
Hang Yi ◽  
Long Wang ◽  
...  

In the North China plain, serious Non-point-source (NPS) pollution and drought are two great concerns in agricultural production. In our studies, two typical chemical agents ( SAP and FA ) were selected to control drought and pollution in a cheery orchard. Soil water content, nutrient transport in soil profile have been researched. The results showed that the soil water content of treatments with chemical agents increased maximally by 19.4% relative to treatment without chemical agents, and increased by 35.2% for Ammonium-N in 20-60 cm soil layer ( main root zone ). However, in 60-120 cm deeper soil layer, the water leakage of treatments with chemical agents decreased averagely by 15.1% relative to treatment without chemical agents, and increased by 43.8% for Nitrate-N. The chemical agents hold water and nutrient in root zone and thus reducing the risk of pollutant leaching into the underground water. It can be found that treatment ( 150kg/h㎡ SAP + 300 times FA ) is the optimal combination group in all treatments. The chemical prevention technology provided a new guide for controlling drought and reducing NPS pollution in cherry planting in the North China plain.


2018 ◽  
pp. 126-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Silvestri ◽  
Vittoria Giannini ◽  
Daniele Antichi

The risks of soil erosion and nutrient leaching can be considered appreciable in short rotation coppices especially in the first growth phases because of the absence of any plant cover. The temporary intercropping with legumes or grasses used as cover crops can help to overcome these environmental issues. The present research work aims to evaluate the effects of the introduction of cover crops in a short rotation poplar (Populus deltoides W. Bartram ex Marshall) with two-year harvest cycle. The plantation was located in a Typic Xerofluvent, silty-loam soil of the coastal Central Italy. Two different species of cover crops, Trifolium subterraneum L. (TS) and Lolium perenne L. (LP), were compared along with an untreated control, colonised by spontaneous vegetation (CO). Several plant and soil parameters were evaluated: the above ground biomass and nutrient accumulation for the three different soil cover types, the nitrate and water content in two soil layers (0.00-0.30 and 0.30-0.60 m), the poplar yield and nutrient content in branches and leaves. TS returned to the soil about 70 kg ha–1 of nitrogen at the end of its biological cycle, thanks to the high N content (over 2%) and to the noticeable amount of dry matter produced (3.46 t ha–1 of dry matter). This value was considerably higher than those of the LP (23 kg ha–1 of N) or CO (10 kg ha–1). The different amount of nitrogen returned to the soil affected both nitrate concentration in topsoil (0.00-0.30 m) and accumulation of nitrogen in poplar organs. Concerning phosphorous, the differences among treatments were less evident and the amount of P returned to the soil ranged from 2 (CO) to 10 (TS) kg ha–1. However, the effect of soil cover type on P uptake in poplar was still appreciable. Generally, the soil water content was slightly affected by the soil cover types. Indeed, the differences between the cover crops and the control became significant only in the shallowest soil layer and over the summer season. In the first year, LP induced a significant decrease in poplar yield (10.1 t ha–1 of dry matter) in comparison with TS (14.7 t ha–1) and CO (13.4 t ha–1), whereas in the second year there were no significant differences among treatments due to the weak regrowth of cover crops. These results show how to make it feasible a long lasting coexistence between cover crops and SRC, a clever design of agro-forestry systems is therefore needed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-152
Author(s):  
Jasreman Singh ◽  
Derek M. Heeren ◽  
Daran R. Rudnick ◽  
Wayne E. Woldt ◽  
Geng Bai ◽  
...  

HighlightsCapacitance-based electromagnetic soil moisture sensors were tested in disturbed and undisturbed soils.The uncertainty in estimation of soil water depth was lower using the undisturbed soil sample calibrations.The uncertainty in estimation of soil water depletion was lower than the uncertainty in volumetric water content.Undisturbed calibration of water depletion quantifies water demand with better precision and avoids over-watering.Abstract. The physical properties of soil, such as structure and texture, can affect the performance of an electromagnetic sensor in measuring soil water content. Historically, calibrations have been performed on repacked samples in the laboratory and on soils in the field, but little research has been done on laboratory calibrations with intact (undisturbed) soil cores. In this study, three replications each of disturbed and undisturbed soil samples were collected from two soil texture classes (Yutan silty clay loam and Fillmore silt loam) at a field site in eastern Nebraska to investigate the effects of soil structure and texture on the precision of a METER Group GS-1 capacitance-based sensor calibration. In addition, GS-1 sensors were installed in the field near the soil collection sites at three depths (0.15, 0.46, and 0.76 m). The soil moisture sensor had higher precision in the undisturbed laboratory setup, as the undisturbed calibration had a better correlation [slope closer to one, R2undisturbed (0.89) > R2disturbed (0.73)] than the disturbed calibrations for the Yutan and Fillmore texture classes, and the root mean square difference using the laboratory calibration (RMSDL) was higher for pooled disturbed samples (0.053 m3 m-3) in comparison to pooled undisturbed samples (0.023 m3 m-3). The uncertainty in determination of volumetric water content (?v) was higher using the factory calibration (RMSDF) in comparison to the laboratory calibration (RMSDL) for the different soil structures and texture classes. In general, the uncertainty in estimation of soil water depth was greater than the uncertainty in estimation of soil water depletion by the sensors installed in the field, and the uncertainties in estimation of depth and depletion were lower using the calibration developed from the undisturbed soil samples. The undisturbed calibration of soil water depletion would determine water demand with better precision and potentially avoid over-watering, offering relief from water shortages. Further investigation of sensor calibration techniques is required to enhance the applicability of soil moisture sensors for efficient irrigation management. Keywords: Calibration, Capacitance, Depletion, Irrigation, Precision, Sensor, Soil water content, Structure, Uncertainty.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Eeckman ◽  
Hélène Roux ◽  
Bertrand Bonan ◽  
Clément Albergel ◽  
Audrey Douniot

<p>The representation of soil moisture is a key factor for the simulation of flash flood in the Mediterranean region. The MARINE hydrological model is a distributed model dedicaded to flash flood simulation. Recent developments of the MARINE model lead to an improvement of the subsurface flow representation : on the one hand, the transfers through the subsurface take place in a homogeneous soil column based on the volumic soil water content instead of the water height. On the other hand, the soil column is divided into two layers, which represent respectively the upper soil layer and the deep weathered rocks. The aim of this work is to assess the performances of these new representations of the subsurface flow with respect to the soil saturation dynamics during flash flood events. The performances of the model are estimated with respect to three soil moisture products: i) the gridded soil moisture product provided by the LDAS-Monde assimilation chain. LDAS-Monde is based on the ISBA-a-gs land surface model and integrates high resolution spatial remote sensing data from the Copernicus Global Land Service for vegetation through data assimilation; ii) the upper soil moisture measurements taken from the SMOSMANIA observation network ; iii) The satellite derived surface soil moisture data from Sentinel1. The case study is led over two french mediterranean catchments impacted by flash flood events over the 2017-2019 period and where one SMOSMANIA station is available. Additionnal tests for the initialisation of MARINE water content for the two soil layers are assessed. Results show first that the dynamic of the soil moisture both provided by LDAS-Monde and simulated for the upper soil layer in MARINE are locally consistent with the SMOSMANIA observations. Secondly, the use of soil water content instead of water height to describe lateral flows in MARINE is cleary more relevant with respect to both LDAS-Monde simulations and SMOSMANIA stations. The dynamic of the deep layer moisture content also appears to be consistent with the LDAS-Monde product for deeper layers. However, the bias on these values strongly rely on the calibration of the new two-layers model. The opportunity of improving the two-layers model calibration is then discussed. Finally, the impact of the soil water content initialisation is shown to be significant mainly during the flood rising, and also to be dependent on the model calibration. In conclusion, the new developments presented for the representation of subsurface flow in the MARINE model appear to enhance the soil moisture simulation during flash floods, with respect to both the LDAS-Monde product and the SMOSMANIA observation network.</p>


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