scholarly journals Evidence for enhanced infiltration of ion load during snowmelt

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1431-1457
Author(s):  
G. Lilbæk ◽  
J. W. Pomeroy

Abstract. Meltwater ion concentration and infiltration rate into frozen soil both decline rapidly as snowmelt progresses. Their temporal association is highly non-linear and a covariance term must be added in order to use time-averaged values of snowmelt ion concentration and infiltration rate to calculate chemical infiltration. The covariance is labelled enhanced infiltration and represents the additional ion load that infiltrates due to the timing of high meltwater concentration and infiltration rate. Previous assessment of the impact of enhanced infiltration has been theoretical; thus, experiments were carried out to examine whether enhanced infiltration can be recognized in controlled laboratory settings and to what extent its magnitude varies with soil moisture. Three experiments were carried out: dry soil conditions, unsaturated soil conditions, and saturated soil conditions. Chloride solution was added to the surface of frozen soil columns; the concentration decreased exponentially over time to simulate snow meltwater. Infiltration excess water was collected and its chloride concentration and volume determined. Ion load infiltrating the frozen soil was specified by mass conservation. Results showed that infiltrating ion load increased with decreasing soil moisture as expected; however, the impact of enhanced infiltration increased considerably with increasing soil moisture. Enhanced infiltration caused 2.5 times more ion load to infiltrate during saturated conditions than that estimated using time-averaged ion concentrations and infiltration rates alone. For unsaturated conditions, enhanced infiltration was reduced to 1.45 and for dry soils to 1.3. Reduction in infiltration excess ion load due to enhanced infiltration increased slightly (2–5%) over time, being greatest for the dry soil (45%) and least for the saturated soil (6%). The importance of timing between high ion concentrations and high infiltration rates was best illustrated in the unsaturated experiment, which showed large inter-column variation in enhanced ion infiltration due to variation in this temporal covariance.

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 1365-1374 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Lilbæk ◽  
J. W. Pomeroy

Abstract. Meltwater ion concentration and infiltration rate into frozen soil both decline rapidly as snowmelt progresses. Their temporal association is highly non-linear and a covariance term must be added in order to use time-averaged values of snowmelt ion concentration and infiltration rate to calculate chemical infiltration. The covariance is labelled enhanced ion infiltration and represents the additional ion load that infiltrates due to the timing of high meltwater concentration and infiltration rate. Previous assessment of the impact of enhanced ion infiltration has been theoretical; thus, experiments were carried out to examine whether enhanced infiltration can be recognized in controlled laboratory settings and to what extent its magnitude varies with soil moisture. Three experiments were carried out: dry soil conditions, unsaturated soil conditions, and saturated soil conditions. Chloride solutions were added to the surface of frozen soil columns; the concentration decreased exponentially over time to simulate snow meltwater. Infiltration excess water was collected and its chloride concentration and volume determined. Ion load infiltrating the frozen soil was specified by mass conservation. Results showed that infiltrating ion load increased with decreasing soil moisture as expected; however, the impact of enhanced ion infiltration increased considerably with increasing soil moisture. Enhanced infiltration caused 2.5 times more ion load to infiltrate during saturated conditions than that estimated using time-averaged ion concentrations and infiltration rates alone. For unsaturated conditions, enhanced ion infiltration was reduced to 1.45 and for dry soils to 1.3. Reduction in infiltration excess ion load due to enhanced infiltration increased slightly (2–5%) over time, being greatest for the dry soil (45%) and least for the saturated soil (6%). The importance of timing between high ion concentrations and high infiltration rates was best illustrated in the unsaturated experiment, which showed large inter-column variation in enhanced ion infiltration due to variation in this temporal covariance.


2017 ◽  
Vol 63 (No. 6) ◽  
pp. 257-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faber Florian ◽  
Wachter Elisabeth ◽  
Zaller Johann G

Inter-rows in vineyards are commonly tilled in order to control weeds and/or to conserve water. While impacts of tillage on earthworms are well studied in arable systems, very little is known from vineyards. In an experimental vineyard, the impact of four reduced tillage methods on earthworms was examined: rotary hoeing, rotary harrowing, grubbing and no tillage. According to an erosion prevention programme, tillage was applied every other inter-row only while alternating rows retained vegetated. Earthworms were extracted from the treated inter-rows 10, 36, 162 and 188 days after tillage. Across dates, tillage methods had no effect on overall earthworm densities or biomass. Considering each sampling date separately, earthworm densities were affected only at day 36 after tillage leading to lower densities under rotary hoeing (150.7 ± 42.5 worms/m<sup>2</sup>) and no tillage (117.3 ± 24.8 worms/m<sup>2</sup>) than under rotary harrowing (340.0 ± 87.4 worms/m<sup>2</sup>) and grubbing (242.7 ± 43.9 worms/m<sup>2</sup>). Time since tillage significantly increased earthworm densities or biomass, and affected soil moisture and temperature. Across sampling dates, earthworm densities correlated positively with soil moisture and negatively with soil temperature; individual earthworm mass increased with increasing time since tillage. It was concluded that reduced tillage in vineyards has little impact on earthworms when applied in spring under dry soil conditions.


Author(s):  
Geng Xia ◽  
Caroline Draxl ◽  
Larry K. Berg ◽  
David Cook

AbstractWe investigate the impact of three land surface models (LSMs) on simulating hub-height wind speed under three different soil regimes (dry, wet, and frozen) to improve understanding of the physics of wind energy forecasts using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. A six-day representative period is selected for each soil condition. The simulated wind speed, surface energy budget and soil properties are compared with the observations collected from the second Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP2). For the selected cases, our simulation results suggest that the impact of LSMs on hub-height wind speed are sensitive to the soil states but not so much to the choice of LSM. The simulated hub-height wind speed is in much better agreement with the observations for the dry soil case than the wet and frozen soil cases. Over the dry soil, there is a strong physical connection between the land surface and hub-height wind speed through near-surface turbulent mixing. Over the wet soil, the simulated hub-height wind speed is less impacted by the land surface due to weaker surface fluxes and large-scale synoptic disturbances. Over the frozen soil, the LSM seems to have limited impact on hub-height wind speed variability due to the decoupling of the land surface with the overlying atmosphere. Two main sources of modeling uncertainties are proposed. The first is the insufficient model physics representing the surface energy budget, especially the ground heat flux, and the second is the inaccurate initial soil states such as soil temperature and soil moisture.


1951 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 211
Author(s):  
GC Wade

The disease known as white root rot affects raspberries, and to a less extent loganberries, in Victoria. The causal organism is a white, sterile fungus that has not been identified. The disease is favoured by dry soil conditions and high soil temperatures. It spreads externally to the host by means of undifferentiated rhizomorphs; and requires a food base for the establishment of infection. The spread of rhizomorphs through the soil is hindered by high soil moisture content and consequent poor aeration of the soil.


2005 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 670-680 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Lawrence ◽  
Julia M. Slingo

Abstract A recent model intercomparison, the Global Land–Atmosphere Coupling Experiment (GLACE), showed that there is a wide range of land–atmosphere coupling strengths, or the degree that soil moisture affects the generation of precipitation, amongst current atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). Coupling strength in the Hadley Centre atmosphere model (HadAM3) is among the weakest of all AGCMs considered in GLACE. Reasons for the weak HadAM3 coupling strength are sought here. In particular, the impact of pervasive saturated soil conditions and low soil moisture variability on coupling strength is assessed. It is found that when the soil model is modified to reduce the occurrence of soil moisture saturation and to encourage soil moisture variability, the soil moisture–precipitation feedback remains weak, even though the relationship between soil moisture and evaporation is strengthened. Composites of the diurnal cycle, constructed relative to soil moisture, indicate that the model can simulate key differences in boundary layer development over wet versus dry soils. In particular, the influence of wet or dry soil on the diurnal cycles of Bowen ratio, boundary layer height, and total heat flux are largely consistent with the observed influence of soil moisture on these properties. However, despite what appears to be successful simulation of these key aspects of the indirect soil moisture–precipitation feedback, the model does not capture observed differences for wet and dry soils in the daily accumulation of boundary layer moist static energy, a crucial feature of the feedback mechanism.


2001 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
R H Azooz ◽  
M A Arshad

In areas of the northwestern Canadian Prairies, barley and canola are grown in a short growing season with high rainfall variability. Excessively dry soil in conventional tillage (CT) in dry periods and excessively wet soil in no-tillage (NT) in wet periods could cause a significant decrease in crop production by influencing the availability of soil water. The effects of CT, NT and NT with a 7.5-cm residue-free strip on the planting rows (NTR) on soil water drying (–dW/dt) and recharge (dW/dt) rates were studied in 1992 and 1993 during wet and dry periods to evaluate the impact of NTR, NT and CT systems on soil moisture condition. The soils, Donnelly silt loam and Donnelly sandy loam (both Gray Luvisol) were selected and soil water content by depth was measured by time domain reflectometry. Water retained at 6 matric potentials from –5 to –160 kPa were observed. In the field study, –dW/dt was significantly greater in CT than in NT in the silt loam for the 0- to 30-cm layer during the first 34 d after planting in 1992. The 0- to 30-cm soil layer in CT and NTR dried faster than in NT during a period immediately following heavy rainfall in the silt loam in 1993. The drying coefficient (–Kd ) was significantly greater in CT and NTR than in NT in the silt loam soil in 1993 and in the sandy loam soil in 1992 in the top 30-cm depth. The recharge coefficient (Kr) was significantly greater in NT and NTR than in CT for the silt loam soil. The NTR system increased the –dW/dt by 1.2 × 10-2 to 12.1 × 10-2 cm d-1 in 1992 and 1993 in the silt loam soil and by 10.2 × 10-2 cm d-1 in 1993 in the sandy loam soil as compared with NT. The dW/dt was 8.1 × 10-2 cm d-1 greater in NTR in 1992 and 1993 in the silt loam soil and was 1.9 × 10-2 greater in NTR in 1992 than in CT in the sandy loam soil. The laboratory study indicated that NT soils retained more water than the CT soils. The NTR practice maintained better soil moisture conditions for crop growth than CT in dry periods than NT in wet periods. Compared with NT, the NTR avoided prolonged near-saturated soil conditions with increased soil drying rate under extremely wet soil. Key words: Water drying, water recharge, water depletion, wet and drying periods, hydraulic properties, soil capacity to retain water


Author(s):  
Sukanta Kumar Das

The study has been attempted to investigate the relationship between the soil-water and the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) rainfall through the simulation of a global climate model named Community Atmosphere Model (CAM3). Two sets of simulation have been done during monsoon season for the years 2009 to 2012 using the pre-monsoon (May) and the previous winter season (December of previous year) state of soil-water as the model initial conditions. The control simulation and four sensitivity cases assuming 25% and 50% dryer and wetter soil-water respectively have been considered for all the aforesaid four years and for both the set of experiments. It has been observed that the impact of upper level soil-water persist for 15 to 20 days of simulation during the summer monsoon; the middle and lower layer soil state persist for a longer period of time due to its slow-varying nature with time. The daily surface temperature shows strong coupling with the upper layer of soil-water. When taken into comparison with the wet soil conditions, the dry soil state in most of the circumstances causes less rainfall.  The Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) and partial correlation technique have been implied to demonstrate the relationship between the daily soil-water columns, subsequent 30-days accumulated rainfall and past 21-days accumulated rainfall. Strong negative correlation has been reported between the soil-water and subsequent 30-days accumulated (All-India Rainfall) AIR for different simulation cases with dry soil conditions; however, the relation weakened and turned positive over some parts of the region for the simulations with wet soil conditions.


2011 ◽  
Vol 139 (12) ◽  
pp. 3848-3870 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clark Evans ◽  
Russ S. Schumacher ◽  
Thomas J. Galarneau

Abstract This study investigates the impact of abnormally moist soil conditions across the southern Great Plains upon the overland reintensification of North Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Erin (2007). This is tested by analyzing the contributions of three soil moisture–related signals—a seasonal signal, an along-track rainfall signal, and an early postlandfall rainfall signal—to the intensity of the vortex. In so doing, a suite of nine convection-permitting numerical simulations using the Advanced Research Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF-ARW) is used. Of the signals tested, soil moisture contributions from the anomalously wet months preceding Erin are found to have the greatest positive impact upon the intensity of the vortex, though this impact is on the order of that from climatological soil moisture conditions. The greatest impact of the early rainfall signal contributions is found when it is added to the seasonal signal. Along-track rainfall during the simulation period has a minimal impact. Variations in soil moisture content result in impacts upon the boundary layer thermodynamic environment via boundary layer mixing. Greater soil moisture content results in weaker mixing, a shallower boundary layer, and greater moisture and instability. Differences in the intensity of convection that develops and its accompanying latent heat release aloft result in greater warm-core development and surface vortex intensification within the simulations featuring greater soil moisture content. Implications of these findings to the tropical cyclone development process are discussed. Given that the reintensification is shown to occur in, apart from land, an otherwise favorable environment for tropical cyclone development and results in a vortex with a structure similar to developing tropical cyclones, these findings provide new insight into the conditions under which tropical cyclones develop.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Corti ◽  
Andrea Abbate ◽  
Vladislav Ivanov ◽  
Monica Papini ◽  
Laura Longoni

&lt;p&gt;Wildfire events have severe effects over mountain environments, changing dramatically the local terrain hydrogeological conditions and frequently affecting slope stability. Besides burning vegetation, wildfires induce a modification on soil properties that could result in a decreased capacity of infiltration. This leads to an increase of erosion and, potentially, of the related geohazards, such as flash flooding and debris flows, in the vicinity of the affected sites.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Past studies found that this reduced infiltration rate changes over time and the original hydrogeological soil properties are expected to recover in as long as 10 years after the wildfire event, depending on the environmental characteristics and on the soil properties of the site.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Our work aims to investigate the impact of a wildfire on the infiltration conditions of a slope located in the Southern Alps, considering as a case study a wildfire event occurred in Sorico (CO) in December 2018.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The effects of the wildfire on the infiltration rates and the subsequent recovery of the original hydrogeological properties were evaluated over the span of more than two years after the event. Infiltration tests were performed both within the most affected area as well as in the nearest unburnt area. Results were then correlated with precipitation and satellite imagery data in order to retrieve a recovery factor, necessary for the calibration of a simple 1D hydrogeological model.&lt;/p&gt;


Solid Earth ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 1259-1268
Author(s):  
Junyi Zhang ◽  
Zihao Bian ◽  
Minghong Dai ◽  
Lachun Wang ◽  
Chunfen Zeng ◽  
...  

Abstract. Carbon sink in karstic areas is very important at a global scale. Consequently, accurate determination of the carbon sink of karst ecosystems has become a core issue in research. We used flow and carbon ion concentration data from three stations with different environmental background conditions in the Houzhai Basin, southwestern China, to analyse the differences in carbon uptake between stations and to determine their impact factors. The results show that carbon sink discharge was mainly controlled by the flow at each site. Preliminary analysis indicated that the rapid increase in flow only had a partial dilution effect on the ion concentrations due to the high speed and stability of chemical carbonate weathering. The Land-Use and Cover-Change (LUCC) type had important effects on the bicarbonate ion concentrations; under stable run-off conditions, the influence of flow variation on the ion concentration was lower than the effects of chemical carbonate weathering on bicarbonate ion concentrations under different environmental conditions (a comparison of Laoheitan and Liugu stations showed a difference of 150 %). However, if run-off increased significantly, the impact of run-off variation on bicarbonate ions was greater than the effects of chemical carbonate weathering caused under different environmental conditions. This work provides a reference for the calculation of the karst geological carbon sink.


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