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Event‐ and Site‐Specific Soil Wetting and Seasonal Change in Amount of Soil Water
Author(s) -
Logsdon Sally D.
Publication year - 2015
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/sssaj2014.08.0327
Subject(s) - ponding , soil water , environmental science , hydrology (agriculture) , surface runoff , soil horizon , neutron probe , soil science , water content , geology , ecology , physics , geotechnical engineering , quantum mechanics , neutron temperature , drainage , neutron , biology , neutron cross section
Changes in the amount of soil water might not be uniform due to spatially variable soil and landscape factors. The objective of this study was to determine if the changes in the amount of soil water due to rain or during sub‐seasonal times are related to soil or landscape properties within a field. Sub‐seasonal changes in soil water were indicated by neutron probe data and surface soil sampling, and rain‐event‐driven soil water increases were indicated by water content reflectometers (WCRs). Excess rainfall in 2010 resulted in wet soil and surface ponding at some sites. Soil zones satiated with water were apparent from WCR data, especially for concave and depressional sites. The length of time soil remained satiated at the 0.3‐ and 0.6‐m depths was negatively correlated with relative elevation (in relation to the nearest depression edge). Soil water increases for the 0.015‐ to 0.15‐m depth were most often correlated with pre‐rain soil water deficit, especially in the wet year of 2010 (13 of 14 events). Change in the amount of soil water at the deepest depth for the later part of the 2012 season (a drought year) was negatively correlated with profile and plan curvatures and mollic depth and positively correlated with relative elevation and sand fraction, which was the opposite of the expected trend. Two sites with buried sand lenses took the longest time to reach maximum soil water increase, suggesting that further study is needed to describe how buried sand lenses affect wetting in the soil above the sand lens.