The effect of vegetal mulching on soil surface temperature in semiarid Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 185-195
Author(s):  
João L.M.P. de Lima ◽  
José R.L. da Silva ◽  
Abelardo A.A. Montenegro ◽  
Valdemir P. Silva ◽  
João R.C.B. Abrantes

Summary Understanding the temporal and spatial dynamic of soil temperature is crucial for agriculture, since it affects soil evaporation and soil biological activity, influencing seed germination, root growth and absorption of water and nutrients by crops, and ultimately the runoff process. Mulching is one of the most applied soil and water conservation method for soil moisture and soil temperature variations control. This study aimed to investigate the influence of three different mulch types (dried elephant grass straw, dried cashew tree leaves and coconut powder or coir dust), applied with three area densities (2, 4 and 8 t ha−1), on the soil surface temperature, under field conditions in the Brazilian semiarid region. Soil temperature monitoring was carried out using thermocouple sensors and an infrared camera in the Brazilian semiarid region. Results show that mulching provided a buffer zone, dampened soil temperature fluctuations over time, mainly for the 8 t ha−1 density. Mulching reduced soil temperature during the hotter period of the day and increased soil temperature during the night period.

Author(s):  
Dragutin T. Mihailović ◽  
George Kallos ◽  
Ilija D. Arsenić ◽  
Branislava Lalić ◽  
Borivoj Rajković ◽  
...  

Soil Research ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 493 ◽  
Author(s):  
PJ Ross ◽  
J Williams ◽  
RL Mccown

Planting crops into chemically killed pasture protects seedlings from high soil temperature. In this paper the radiation balance and convective heat loss of such dead vegetative mulch canopies are analysed mathematically for windless conditions, and maximum soil temperatures are calculated, together with their sensitivities to mulch and soil parameters. An approximate expression for soil heat flux, and assumptions about rates of change of radiation and other inputs with time, allow calculations where actual data are unavailable. A simplified analysis regards the mulch as a radiation filter which acts independently of the soil surface. Agreement with experimental data is good. The results show that energy losses by reflection, conduction, convection, radiation and evaporative cooling are all important in balancing incoming radiation and determining soil surface temperature, so that quantitative analysis is essential for a proper understanding of the system. .Mulch can reduce soil surface temperature by up to 20�C by intercepting incoming radiation; it dissipates this intercepted energy quite efficiently by free convection without concomitant increase in the temperature of the underlying soil surface. Penetration of radiation through the mulch is its most important characteristic. Forward scattering of shortwave radiation from the mulch to the soil surface has a big effect on soil temperature, but backward scattering has little effect, hence lighter-coloured more reflective mulches may be less efficient than darker ones. Evaporation of soil water is very efficient in reducing soil temperature, and the mulch prolongs the process of slow evaporation from the soil surface. The resulting higher soil water content also decreases soil surface temperature through its effects on soil thermal properties.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shikhar Upadhyay ◽  
Sarit Das ◽  
Chandra Shekhar Ojha

<p>The spatial variations of ABL depth has wide applications in aeronautical meteorology, urban meteorology, agricultural meteorology and hydrology. In the context of Indian subcontinent, it is more important where air pollution episodes, smog, fog etc. are getting worse over the years. The dispersal of smog and low-level pollutants depends strongly on meteorological conditions. Monitoring and management of air quality is closely associated with the transport and dispersal of atmospheric pollutants, including industrial plumes. Processes of pollutant transport include turbulent mixing in the ABL, particularly the role of convection, photochemistry and dry and wet deposition to the surface. The depth of the ABL determine the extent of thermal and mechanical mixing of pollutants. Further, mean ABL depth can be used to determine the average seasonal air pollution scenarios. Soil surface temperature is one of the major factors which derives the ABL depth. Thus, it is important to know - what is the spatial ABL depth and soil surface temperature variation, in which direction changes in ABL depth and soil surface temperature is more or less consistent, over Indian subcontinent.</p><p>To understand the spatial variability of ABL depth and soil surface temperature, a variogram analysis is performed taking 30 stations over Indian sub-continent. Data at 30 stations (Ahmadabad, Bhopal, Gwalior, Aurangabad, Nagpur, Raipur, New Delhi, Gorakhpur, Patna, Lucknow, Patiala, Siliguri, Karaikal, Vishakhapatnam, Machilipatnam, Lhasa, Minfeng, Jodhpur, Agartalla, Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Dibrugarh, Hotan, Hyderabad, Jagdalpur, Kolkata, Panjim, Port Blair, Srinagar) are collected for three years 1994, 1997 and 2000. ABL depths are computed using soundings obtained from the Integrated Global Radiosonde Archived (IGRA) by adopting the bulk Richardson method.</p><p>Both ABL depth and soil surface temperature are greater in central region, but low near shore and in hilly regions. By using both these parameters, omnidirectional variograms are drawn, which show the spatial distribution of ABL depths and surface soil temperature over India are determined for different years. The particular variogram demonstrates a well-suited spatial relationship for geostatistical analysis as pairs of points are more correlated the closer they are together and the greater the distance between points becomes less correlated. There are certain parameters of variogram (sill and range) that adjust iteratively to get the best fitted model. Then, models are fitted to the experimental variogram using least square approach between the experimental and modelled variogram values. The model with its corresponding parameters based on least square method is selected as the best variogram model. These parameters are finally used in the ordinary kriging analysis. Spherical variograms are fitted and found to have significant correlation for stations within a lags of 19, 18, 18 and 17, 17, 20 degrees latitude/longitude change for ABL depth and soil surface temperature and for the year 1994, 1997 and 2000 respectively. Utilizing variogram parameters, the spatial distributions are plotted using ordinary Kriging. A polynomial curve of order 3 fitted Cubic curve fitting on the scatter plots between soil surface temperature and ABL depth, yield R<sup>2</sup> value as 0.44, 0.52 and 0.53 in 1994, 1997, 2000 respectively.</p><p> </p>


2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 802 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan C. Lutes ◽  
Robert E. Keane ◽  
John F. Caratti

We present a classification of duff, litter, fine woody debris, and logs that can be used to stratify a project area into sites with fuel loading that yield significantly different emissions and maximum soil surface temperature. Total particulate matter smaller than 2.5 μm in diameter and maximum soil surface temperature were simulated using the First Order Fire Effects Model. Simulation results were clustered into 10 Effects Groups using an agglomerative routine where each Effects Group defined a unique range of soil temperature and emissions. Classification tree analysis was used to estimate the critical duff, litter, fine woody debris, and log loadings associated with the soil temperature and emissions of each Effects Group. The resulting 21 fuel classes are called Fuel Loading Models and classified the study dataset with an ~34% misclassification rate. The classification can be used to describe fuel loadings for a plot or stand, or as map units for mapping fuel loadings across large regions. The classification process can be used to develop finer-scale fuel classifications for specific regions or ecosystems.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 2444
Author(s):  
William Frodella ◽  
Giacomo Lazzeri ◽  
Sandro Moretti ◽  
Jacob Keizer ◽  
Frank G. A. Verheijen

The soil surface albedo decreases with an increasing biochar application rate as a power decay function, but the net impact of biochar application on soil temperature dynamics remains to be clarified. The objective of this study was to assess the potential of infrared thermography (IRT) sensing by monitoring soil surface temperature (SST) with a high spatiotemporal and thermal resolution in a scalable agricultural application. We monitored soil surface temperature (SST) variations over a 48 h period for three treatments in a vineyard: bare soil (plot S), 100% biochar cover (plot B), and biochar-amended topsoil (plot SB). The SST of all plots was monitored at 30 min intervals with a tripod-mounted IR thermal camera. The soil temperature at 10 cm depth in the S and SB plots was monitored continuously with a 5 min resolution probe. Plot B had greater daily SST variations, reached a higher daily temperature peak relative to the other plots, and showed a faster rate of T increase during the day. However, on both days, the SST of plot B dipped below that of the control treatment (plot S) and biochar-amended soil (plot SB) from about 18:00 onward and throughout the night. The diurnal patterns/variations in the IRT-measured SSTs were closely related to those in the soil temperature at a 10 cm depth, confirming that biochar-amended soils showed lower thermal inertia than the unamended soil. The experiment provided interesting insights into SST variations at a local scale. The case study may be further developed using fully automated SST monitoring protocols at a larger scale for a range of environmental and agricultural applications.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 8238
Author(s):  
Jibing Xiong ◽  
Runhua Yu ◽  
Ejazul Islam ◽  
Fuhai Zhu ◽  
Jianfeng Zha ◽  
...  

High soil surface temperature and loosened soil are major limiting factors of plant productivity in arid and semi-arid coal mining areas of China. Moreover, the extensive and illegitimate burning of crop residues is causing environmental pollution; whereas, these residues could be converted to biochar to benefit soil quality. In this study, the effect of wheat straw biochar (WSB) at rates of 0% (control, CK), 1% (low, LB), 2% (medium, MB) and 4% (high, HB) on soil temperature at different depths (5, 10, 15, and 20 cm) and moisture levels (10 and 20%) was investigated under high soil surface temperature of 50 °C and air humidity of 40%. Our data suggested that soil bulk density was inversely, and soil moisture was directly corelated with soil thermal parameters. Moreover, the increasing rate of WSB addition linearly decreased the soil thermal properties. The maximum decrease in soil bulk density at both moisture levels (10% and 20%) was measured in HB treatment compared to respective CKs. The highest decrease in soil thermal conductivity (59.8% and 24.7%) was found under HB treatment in comparison to respective controls (CK10% and CK20% moisture). The soil volumetric heat capacity was also strongly corelated with soil moisture content (r = 0.91). The WSB treatments displayed differential responses to soil temperature. Under 10% soil moisture, temperature of LB, MB and HB treatments was higher as compared to CK at 5–20 cm depth, and MB treated soil had the smallest increase in temperature. At the 15-cm depth, the MB treatment decreased the temperature by 0.93 °C as compared to the CK20%. Therefore, the effect of WSB on soil temperature was influenced by soil moisture content, soil depth and WSB application rates. It suggested that MB treatment could be a useful farming practice for mitigating soil temperature fluctuation.


2010 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewa Bednorz ◽  
Leszek Kolendowicz

Daily course of the soil temperature in summer in chosen ecosystems of Słowiński National Park, northern Poland Patterns of the daily changes of the soil temperature in summer at three different ecosystems within the Słowiński National Park were analyzed. Strong correlation between the solar radiation and the soil temperature was found, particularly for the bare sandy surfaces, while the plant and humus cover hampers the solar energy flux to the soil. In the same way, correlations between the temperature of soil surface and the air temperature were computed. Finally, logarithmic models for the relationship between the global solar radiation and the soil surface temperature and between the soil surface temperature and the air temperature were constructed.


HortScience ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 500g-501
Author(s):  
James E. Faust ◽  
Hiroshi Shimizu ◽  
Royal D. Heins

Surface temperature of a soilless medium in white, gray, and black plug sheets was measured to determine the value of using plug sheets of different colors to control soil temperature during seed germination and young seedling growth. Plugs sheets were placed in a greenhouse set at 25°C. Soil surface temperatures were measured with fine-wire thermocouples inserted into the top 1 mm of the soil. A thermal image analyzer was used to determine the temperature variation across the plug flat. At night, soil temperature in all three colored flats was 3°C below air temperature because of evaporation and net longwave radiative losses to the greenhouse glass. Surface temperature of moist soil increased as solar radiation increased. Soil surface temperature in the white sheet was 6.3 and 10°C warmer than the air under solar radiation conditions of 350 and 700 W ·m-2 (about 700 and 1400 μmol·m-2·s-1), which was 3 and 2°C cooler than soil the black and gray plug sheets, respectively. These data indicate plug sheet color influences soil surface temperature, but not as much as solar radiation does. Preventing high solar radiation during the summer is more critical than plug sheet color.


2013 ◽  
Vol 116 ◽  
pp. 128-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.L. Kerridge ◽  
J.W. Hornbuckle ◽  
E.W. Christen ◽  
R.D. Faulkner

1995 ◽  
Vol 117 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Krarti ◽  
D. E. Claridge ◽  
J. F. Kreider

This paper presents an analytical model to predict the temperature variation within a multilayered soil. The soil surface temperature is assumed to have a sinusoidal time variation for both daily and annual time scales. The soil thermal properties in each layer are assumed to be uniform. The model is applied to two-layered, three-layered, and to nonhomogeneous soils. In case of two-layered soil, a detailed analysis of the thermal behavior of each layer is presented. It was found that as long as the order of magnitude of the thermal diffusivity of soil surface does not exceed three times that of deep soil; the soil temperature variation with depth can be predicted accurately by a simplified model that assumes that the soil has constant thermal properties.


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