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Transport of Chloride Through an Unsaturated Field Soil
Author(s) -
Roth K.,
Jury W. A.,
Flühler H.,
Attinger W.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/91wr01771
Subject(s) - tracer , infiltration (hvac) , soil science , chloride , dispersion (optics) , pulse (music) , hydrology (agriculture) , soil water , irrigation , environmental science , materials science , geotechnical engineering , geology , optics , physics , composite material , ecology , detector , nuclear physics , metallurgy , biology
A chloride tracer was applied to the surface of a vegetable field and then leached downward by rainfall and irrigation. Tracer concentrations in a vertical two‐dimensional region down to a depth of 2.4 m were monitored with suction cups that, were installed horizontally from a tunnel. The uniformly applied tracer pulse split into a slowly moving main pulse and a series of fast pulses. The first of the fast pulses reached a depth of 2.2 m after an infiltration of just 31 mm of natural rainfall, whereas the peak of the main pulse was still at a depth of 0.84 m by the end of the experiment after an infiltration of 0.853 m. The movement of the main pulse can be described by a convection‐dispersion process in a homogeneous medium, provided that time is replaced by cumulative infiltration. However, the values of the parameters that produce a maximum agreement between the model and the observed main pulse have no physical basis, and consequently prediction of solute movement, based on measurements of soil properties, is not possible.