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Salinity and Compaction Effects on Soil Water Evaporation and Water and Solute Distributions
Author(s) -
Nassar I. N.,
Horton Robert
Publication year - 1999
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/sssaj1999.634752x
Subject(s) - soil water , loam , soil science , evaporation , environmental science , compaction , hydrology (agriculture) , chemistry , geology , geotechnical engineering , physics , thermodynamics
Water evaporation and solute transport were studied in open soil columns. The study included two different soil materials — Clarinda clay (fine, montmorillonitic, mesic, sloping Typic Argiaquoll) and Fayette silty clay loam (fine‐silty, mixed, mesic Typic Hapludalf) — and three conditions. Two conditions were noncompacted solute‐free and salinized noncompacted soil columns of both Clarinda and Fayette soils, and one condition was compacted salinized soil columns of Clarinda soil only. The initial soil water contents were 0.271 and 0.181 m 3 m −3 for noncompacted Clarinda and Fayette soils, respectively. The initial soil water content of compacted Clarinda was 0.393 m 3 m −3 The initial KCl concentrations were 1.11 and 0.92 mol kg −1 of soil solution for Clarinda and Fayette soils, respectively. Measured ratios of evaporation loss from the noncompacted salinized soil columns to the amount of water evaporated from noncompacted solute‐free soil columns increased with time from 0.78 to 0.89 for Clarinda and 0.90 to 0.95 for Fayette soils. Evaporation from noncompacted Clarinda soil increased with time from 0.73 to 0.77 of the evaporation from compacted Clarinda soil. A numerical model of heat, water, and solute transfer was used to predict distributions of temperature, water content, and solute concentration for a given evaporation rate. Efficiency of the model for reproducing the water content and solute concentration ranged from 94.5 to 61.1%. The predicted and observed solute concentrations increased with time in the upper 0.02 m of noncompacted soil. Also, the upper soil portion, the 0.05‐m layer, dried drastically. Both observations and predictions indicate complex interactions between heat, water, and chemicals near evaporating surfaces.