Soil water diffusivity: A simple laboratory method for its determination
Soil water diffusivity (D) is an important hydraulic property that is fundamental to characterize unsaturated watertransport. Its determination is complex, time-consuming and requires expensive instruments. The objectives of this workwere: to propose a simple and low-cost laboratory methodology to d...
| Autores: | , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2016 |
| País: | Argentina |
| Institución: | Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas |
| Repositorio: | CONICET Digital (CONICET) |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/55021 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/11336/55021 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Unsaturated water movement Sorptivity Richards' equation |
| Sumario: | Soil water diffusivity (D) is an important hydraulic property that is fundamental to characterize unsaturated watertransport. Its determination is complex, time-consuming and requires expensive instruments. The objectives of this workwere: to propose a simple and low-cost laboratory methodology to determine D function; and to analyze the influence of soilmanagement systems on D and Sorptivity (S). The studied soil was classified as a vertic Paleudol. The first 10 cm of the soilunder three different management systems (T1: Natural grassland, T2: direct drilling, and T3: Polyphitic Pasture) was sampled.The samples were sieved and packed into horizontal columns. The columns were analyzed under horizontal infiltration and Dwas determined by variations of water content as a function of time for fixed positions, obtained from low-cost soil moisturecapacitance sensors. The results showed that the proposed methodology is valid in the studied soils. Soil management systemsignificantly affected D and S. They were greater for T2 compared with T1 and T3 (D varied between 0.00033 and 0.0321cm2.s-1). This means that the soil under T2 can transmit water faster under non-saturated conditions as compared with thesoil under grazing. In conclusion, the proposed methodology allowed to determine D in a simple and low-cost way, and todetermine the influence of these properties on productive conditions. |
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