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Soil hydraulic conductivities of latosols under pasture, forest and teak in Rondonia, Brazil
Author(s) -
Elsenbeer Helmut,
Newton Bradley E.,
Dunne Thomas,
de Moraes Jorge M.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
hydrological processes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.222
H-Index - 161
eISSN - 1099-1085
pISSN - 0885-6087
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-1085(19990630)13:9<1417::aid-hyp816>3.0.co;2-6
Subject(s) - environmental science , pasture , forestry , hydraulic conductivity , hydrology (agriculture) , soil science , soil water , agroforestry , geology , geography , geotechnical engineering
We investigated the changes of saturated hydraulic conductivity, K sat , with depth of latosols developed on Precambrian basement rocks under primary rainforest, pasture and teak. In all cases, K sat decreased with depth, with most of the decrease occurring between the surface and a depth of 30 cm. In conjunction with prevailing rainfall intensities and frequencies, this anisotropy supports a pronounced lateral component of hillslope flow paths, and also of overland flow under pasture. Our results are at variance with data from other latosols where K sat tends to increase with depth, and hence suggest that considerable restraint is needed in generalization and extrapolation until results from a co‐ordinated effort at hydrology‐oriented data collection become available. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.