scholarly journals Quantify Piston and Preferential Water Flow in Deep Soil Using Cl− and Soil Water Profiles in Deforested Apple Orchards on the Loess Plateau, China

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 2183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiqiang Zhang ◽  
Bingcheng Si ◽  
Huijie Li ◽  
Min Li

Piston and preferential water flow are viewed as the two dominant water transport mechanisms regulating terrestrial water and solute cycles. However, it is difficult to accurately separate the two water flow patterns because preferential flow is not easy to capture directly in field environments. In this study, we take advantage of the afforestation induced desiccated deep soil, and directly quantify piston and preferential water flow using chloride ions (Cl−) and soil water profiles, in four deforested apple orchards on the Loess Plateau. The deforestation time ranged from 3 to 15 years. In each of the four selected orchards, there was a standing orchard that was planted at the same time as the deforested one, and therefore the standing orchard was used to benchmark the initial Cl− and soil water profiles of the deforested orchard. In the deforested orchards, piston flow was detected using the migration of the Cl− front, and preferential flow was measured via soil water increase below the Cl− front. Results showed that in the desiccated zone, Cl− migrated to deeper soil after deforestation, indicating that the desiccated soil layer formed by the water absorption of deep-rooted apple trees did not completely inhibit the movement of water. Moreover, there was an evident increase in soil water below the downward Cl− front, directly demonstrating the existence of preferential flow in deep soil under field conditions. Although pore water velocity was small in the deep loess, preferential water flow still accounted for 34–65% of total infiltrated water. This study presented the mechanisms that regulate movement of soil water following deforestation through field observations and advanced our understanding of the soil hydrologic process in deep soil.

2021 ◽  
Vol 312 ◽  
pp. 107342
Author(s):  
Rui Zhang ◽  
Di Wang ◽  
Ziqi Yang ◽  
Katsutoshi Seki ◽  
Manmohanjit Singh ◽  
...  

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 793
Author(s):  
Yan Mu ◽  
Di Wang ◽  
Yanping Wang

Knowledge of changes in soil-water storage (SWS) at multiple scales in apple orchards is important for formulating policies for the scientific management and sound planning of apple plantations on the Loess Plateau in China. In this study, we measured precipitation, partitioned evapotranspiration (ET) into canopy interception, transpiration, and soil evaporation, and calculated the changes in SWS using the water-balance method at multiple scales in two neighbouring apple orchards (8 and 18 years old) on the Loess Plateau from May to September in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. The results showed that ET was consistently lower for the 8- than the 18-year-old orchard in each year at the same scale (p < 0.05). The changes in SWS differed between the two orchards at the same scale, but the trends of change were similar in each year. The trend of the change in SWS at the same scale differed amongst the years for both orchards. The maximum supply of water from soil reservoirs for the two orchards also differed at different scales in each year and was higher at a daily cumulative scale than a monthly and annual scale in 2013, 2014, and 2016. The daily cumulative scale was thus a more suitable scale for representing the maximum contribution of the soil reservoir to supply water for the growth of the orchards during the study periods. Changes in SWS at a daily cumulative scale should be considered when assessing the effect of apple orchards on regional soil reservoirs on the Loess Plateau or in other water-limited regions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 223 ◽  
pp. 105655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanhong Zhang ◽  
Rui Wang ◽  
Shulan Wang ◽  
Fang Ning ◽  
Hao Wang ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 260 ◽  
pp. 107990
Author(s):  
Gulnazar Ali ◽  
Zikui Wang ◽  
Xinrong Li ◽  
Naixuan Jin ◽  
Huiying Chu ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 1907-1915 ◽  
Author(s):  
张丽娜 ZHANG Lina ◽  
李军 LI Jun ◽  
范鹏 FAN Peng ◽  
曹裕 CAO Yu ◽  
居玛汗·卡斯木 JUMAHAN kasimu

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruixue Cao ◽  
Xiaoxu Jia ◽  
Laiming Huang ◽  
Yuanjun Zhu ◽  
Lianhai Wu ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lan Ma ◽  
Xuemei Mei ◽  
Qingke Zhu

&lt;p&gt;Preferential flow is expected to provide an important pathway to replenish soil water&amp;#160;at deep soil layers in arid or semiarid areas; however, few studies have addressed this&amp;#160;topic, especially in semiarid Loess hillslopes. This study aimed to quantify the effect of&amp;#160;stand origin and slope position on the contribution of preferential flow to total&amp;#160;infiltration and spatial variations in water flow. A blue dye tracer experiment was&amp;#160;conducted to visualize water flow in &lt;em&gt;Robinia pseudoacacia&lt;/em&gt; plantation (PL), natural&amp;#160;forestland (NF), and natural grassland (NG) at the upslope, midslope, and downslope,&amp;#160;and semivariance analysis was used to determine spatial variability at the centimeter&amp;#160;scale. The results showed that role of macropore flow was dominant in upslope and&amp;#160;midslope, and larger in NF than that in PL and NG, due to presence of abundant root&amp;#160;systems in the upper soil of NF. Moreover, contribution of preferential flow at the&amp;#160;upper slope in NF was larger than that in PL. At the downslope, the role of rock&amp;#160;fragments coverage at the downslope was emphasized, leading lateral flow dominant&amp;#160;at the downslope in PL and NG. In addition, contribution of preferential flow and vertical&amp;#160;variability of infiltration at the downslope in PL was higher than that in NF. The&amp;#160;findings demonstrate that compared with PL, NF has a more positive impact on&amp;#160;increasing infiltration and preferential flow that can replenish deep soil water, and&amp;#160;reducing surface runoff and soil erosion. The presence of rock fragments coverage&amp;#160;can make lateral flow dominant at the downslope on the Loess hillslope, related to&amp;#160;water movement along the slope toward streams and catchment outlets.&lt;/p&gt;


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1293
Author(s):  
Lei Hua ◽  
Jianen Gao ◽  
Meifang Zhou ◽  
Shilun Bai

Relative elevation, as one of the decisive factors to the redistribution of soil water, nutrients, sunshine, and temperature in a region influences apple yield and quality by adjusting soil water and nutrients. To explore the impact of relative elevation on apple quality, this research investigated the conditions of soil moisture and nutrients at different elevations of terrace apple orchards in the hilly-gully region of the Loess Plateau. The results showed that soil water content decreases when the elevation increased, whereas soil nutrients fluctuated significantly at different elevations of terrace orchards and the contents were lower than the standard level of the Loess Plateau, especially soil organic matter, but total potassium was higher. The apple firmness increased when the elevation increased and had a good linear relationship with elevation. Apple vitamin C content in weed-covered orchards was higher than in the ploughing and weeding management orchards. The impact of soil nutrients, including soil water, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium on apple quality were concentrated in soluble solid and total acid. Irrational irrigation or partial use of nutrients, such as more use of nitrogen and less use of phosphorus and potassium, may deteriorate the apple quality. Therefore, we suggested that the amount of irrigation be increased appropriately with the raising of elevation. Moreover, part of the weed should be kept to cover the orchard, as well as mowing regularly and covering the surface. This would not only improve water use efficiency and increase soil organic matter content, it would also maintain apple quality and ensure sustainable development of the apple orchards.


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