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Water Movement in Bare and Cropped Soil Under Isolated Trickle Emitters: I. Analysis of Bare Soil Experiments
Author(s) -
Jury W. A.,
Earl K. D.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
soil science society of america journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1435-0661
pISSN - 0361-5995
DOI - 10.2136/sssaj1977.03615995004100050007x
Subject(s) - ponding , loam , drip irrigation , trickle , water content , environmental science , hydrology (agriculture) , irrigation , soil water , field capacity , hydraulic conductivity , soil science , geology , geotechnical engineering , drainage , agronomy , ecology , law , political science , biology
A field experiment on a Buren sandy loam with a low (0.5 cm/hr) saturated hydraulic conductivity is reported in which water movement in soil irrigated from a single isolated trickle emitter was observed. Water was introduced at a uniform rate of 4 liters/hr and a weekly volume of 84 liters at frequencies of 3 irrigations/day and 1 irrigation/week. During a 41‐day experiment, soil water movement was followed by tensiometers and gravimetric water content sampling, and surface ponding was recorded by photography. It was found that more water moved laterally in the weekly irrigation plots than in the daily ones, a result which was not consistent with predictions of simplified theoretical models which did not consider surface ponding. Observation of the wetted radius at the surface indicated that substantial amounts of water were running off laterally during the weekly irrigation, which could account for the storage changes seen at large radial distances from the emitter.