scholarly journals River Buffer Effectiveness in Controlling Surface Runoff Based on Saturated Soil Hydraulic Conductivity

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 2383
Author(s):  
Hatma Suryatmojo ◽  
Ken’ichirou Kosugi

In tropical Indonesia, rainforests are managed by an intensive forest management system (IFMS). The IFMS has promoted selective logging for timber harvesting and intensive line planting to enrich the standing stock. The implementation of the IFMS has reduced the forest canopy cover, disturbed the surface soil, changed the soil hydraulic properties, and increased direct runoff and soil erosion. Investigation of the IFMS impact on soil hydraulic properties and the generation of surface runoff using a saturated hydraulic conductivity model is needed. Soil hydraulic properties were investigated on 11 plots, including one virgin forest plot and 10 plots at different operational periods of the IFMS. A two-dimensional saturated soil water flow simulation was applied to generate surface runoff from different periods of the IFMS. The main parameters of canopy cover, net rainfall, and saturated hydraulic conductivity were used in the simulations. A simulation scenario of a surface runoff hydrograph in different forest operations was used to analyze the river buffer effectiveness. The results showed that fundamental IFMS activities associated with mechanized selective logging and intensive line planting have reduced the soil hydraulic conductivity within the near-surface profile. The recovery time for near-surface Ks on non-skidder tracks was between 10 and 15 years, whereas on the skidder tracks it was more than 20 years. Forest disturbances have altered the typical surface hydrological pathways, thereby creating the conditions for more surface runoff on disturbed surfaces than on undisturbed surfaces. Maintaining the buffer area is an effective means to reduce the peak discharge and surface runoff in the stream channel.

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Shwetha Prasanna

Soils are a product of the factors of formation and continuously change over the earth’s surface. The analysis of the spatial variability of soil properties is important for land management and construction of an ecological environment. Soils are characterized by high degree of spatial variability due to the combined effect of physical, chemical or biological processes that operate with different intensities and at different scales. The spatial variability of soil hydraulic properties helps us to find the subsurface flux of water. The most frequently used hydraulic properties are soil water retention curve and saturated hydraulic conductivity. Both these hydraulic properties exhibit a high degree of spatial and temporal variability. The primary objective of this study was to analyze the spatial variability of hydraulic properties of forest soils of Pavanje river basin. Correlation analysis technique has been used to analyze various soil properties. Spatial variability of the forested hillslope soils at different depths varied considerably among the soil hydraulic properties. The spatial variability of water retention at all the different pressure head is low at the top layers, and increases towards the bottom layers. The saturated hydraulic conductivity is almost same in the top layers, but more in the bottom layers of forest soil.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrizia Hangele ◽  
Katharina Luise Müller ◽  
Hannes Laermanns ◽  
Christina Bogner

<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>


1999 ◽  
Vol 50 (7) ◽  
pp. 1259 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. R. J. Smettem ◽  
K. L. Bristow

Regional scale application of water and solute transport models is often limited by the lack of available data describing soil hydraulic properties and their variability. Direct measurement over large areas is expensive and time consuming. Physico-empirical models derived from soil survey data are therefore an attractive alternative. If the Marshall method of estimating the saturated hydraulic conductivity is simplified to depend primarily on the maximum pore radius, given by the bubbling pressure, then it is equivalent to the Campbell model of saturated hydraulic conductivity which relies entirely on an estimate of the bubbling pressure obtained from particle size data. We apply this simplified physico-empirical model to estimate the ‘matrix’, or textural saturated hydraulic conductivity, K m, using estimates of the bubbling pressure derived entirely from clay content data that are readily available in soil surveys. Model estimates are compared with in situ measurements on surface soils obtained using a disc permeameter with a negative pressure head at the supply surface of 40 mm. Results appear to be satisfactory for broad-scale water balance and leaching risk models that require specification of a matching point for the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity function and for modelling applications requiring generalised application of results from experimental sites.


Biologia ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 61 (19) ◽  
Author(s):  
Csilla Farkas ◽  
Csaba Gyuricza ◽  
Márta Birkás

AbstractIn the present work the effect of five tillage methods on the hydraulic properties and water regime of a brown forest soil was studied. In each treatment, measurements of bulk density and soil water retention characteristics were carried out 3 times (March, June and August) within the vegetation period. Near-saturated hydraulic conductivity and soil water content measurements were performed five and eight times, respectively. Statistically valuable differences were obtained between the soil properties, measured in different tillage treatments. The effect of the tillage treatments on the water retention curves was significant in the low suction range (pF < 2.0) only. Differences between the soil water retention curves, measured at the end of the vegetation period reflected the indirect effect of different tillage systems on soil hydraulic properties. The seasonal variability of both the soil hydraulic functions was proofed. Saturated hydraulic conductivity values, evaluated in the ploughing treatment at the beginning and end of the vegetation period differed up to 4-times. The near-saturated hydraulic conductivity values measured in March were nearly two times higher in all the treatments, except no till, than those, measured in August. The applied tillage systems did not influence the potential amount of water available for the plant; still, valuable differences between the soil water contents were measured. According to the soil hydraulic properties and measured soil water regime, ploughing and deep loosening created the most favourable soil conditions for the plants. The biological activity, however, was the highest in the no till treatment. Further studies on the application of the soil conserving tillage systems under Hungarian conditions are recommended.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Axel Lamparter ◽  
C. Florian Stange

&lt;p&gt;Quality control of the measurement of soil hydraulic properties (water retention curve, saturated hydraulic conductivity) using soil cores is not very common in soil physics laboratories. The missing quality control in the labs might be due to the lack of a suitable reference material for the measurement of soil hydraulic properties (SHP). However, a standardized quality of these measurements is needed, especially when generated data from different laboratories are used.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So far no satisfying reference material has been presented that can be used for quality control during the measurement of SHP. Reference material should have a rigid pore system and pore surfaces properties that do not change over time. Additionally, the reference material should be very sensitive to provide a sufficient quality control for the measurement of SHP.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We present sintered glass cylinders with a defined pore size distribution that were tested in the laboratory for reproducibility. After a standardized cleaning procedure of the glass cylinders, water contents after equilibration at -63 hPa (field capacity) showed reasonably low standard deviations. Thus, it seems promising that these cylinders can be used as reference material for the measurement of the water retention curve.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;First Results of repeated saturated hydraulic conductivity measurements (Ks) of the same sintered glass cylinders showed larger variability and an increasing trend over the time. Currently the reason for this trend is unknown. Therefore, it is worked on standardizing procedures of using the reference cylinders and on cleaning the cylinders to improve the reproducibility. The results show how sensitive the measurement of saturated hydraulic conductivity is and that we need to put more emphasis on quality control in our work.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;


2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (8) ◽  
pp. 1805-1812 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maarten De Boever ◽  
Donald Gabriels ◽  
Mohamed Ouessar ◽  
Wim Cornelis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Bitterlich ◽  
Richard Pauwels

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


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