Iris Vogeler

The breakdown of water repellency and solute transport through a hydrophobic soil

Unsaturated infiltration into the Ramiha silt loam, an Andic Dystrochrept, follows the classic pattern. A rapid drop-off from a high flow rate, seemingly induced by capillary attraction, appears followed by an apparent steady-flow maintained by gravity at around 0.5 μm s−1. Beyond 100 min, however, the infiltration rate climbs nearly linearly to exceed 4 μm s−1 as the soils water repellency breaks down. This is only evident after a period that might exceed the observers attention span. The hydrophobicity in this case could be due to one, or a combination, of the many unusual characteristics of this soil—its low bulk density (0.8 Mg m−3), its strongly aggregated nature, the presence of mycorrhizal fungi, its high organic matter content (16.5%), or the presence of allophanic clay (4%). Our measurements of infiltration into undisturbed cores of Ramiha silt loam were made with disc permeameters set at the unsaturated pressure head of h0=−40mm. The permeameters contained a solution of electrolytic tracer (KBr) so that we could observe solute transport in this soil. Vertical three-wire rods for Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) measurement were inserted directly through the base plate of the permeameter so that we could continuously monitor the soils changing water content and resident concentration of electrolyte. The TDR measurements revealed the transient behaviour of fingered preferential flow into this soil during the breakdown of hydrophobicity. At the conclusion of the experiment, the soil cores were sectioned to permit measurement of the profiles in the resident concentration of the invading chemical. Near the surface, at the conclusion of the experiment, the resident concentration of bromide was found to be exactly that of the invading solution. So, despite the initial water repellency of the soil, the infiltrating bromide solution was subsequently able to invade the entire pore space—once the hydrophobicity had dissipated. Classic theory would then seem capable of describing solute transport after the effects of water repellency had faded.

Plant uptake and leaching of copper during EDTA-enhanced phytoremediation of repacked and undisturbed soil

EDTA-enhanced phytoremediation of copper contaminated soil was evaluated. Up to 740 μg g−1 of Na2H2 EDTA in solution was added to repacked soil columns, and intact cores of a sandy loam of volcanic origin, that was growing Agrostis tenuis. The soil contained up to 400 μg g−1 of copper due to a history of fungicide spraying. EDTA application increased the herbage copper concentration of the grass growing in repacked soil from 30 to 300 μg g−1, but the same application to an intact core only brought about an increase from 10 to 60 μg g−1. More copper accumulated in the herbage when the EDTA was applied in numerous small doses than in just one or two larger amounts. Calculation of the concentration of copper in the water taken up by the grass revealed this to be two orders of magnitude lower than that in the soil solution. As a result of the EDTA applications, about 100 times more copper was leached than was taken up by the herbage. This means that a strategy for managing leaching losses needs to be part of any plan for EDTA-enhanced phytoremediation.

Describing N leaching from urine patches deposited at different times of the year with a transfer function

A transfer function (TF) was developed to assist with the estimation of nitrogen (N) leaching from urine-affected areas in grazed pastures. The proposed TF uses a simple function to describe the likely breakthrough curve for urine-N deposited in different months and in various climates and soils in New Zealand. The TF was designed to be integrated into the OVERSEER® Nutrient budgets model to increase the sensitivity of N leaching to the month of urine deposition, but could also be used in any other model that estimates the water balance and plant N uptake on a monthly basis. The inputs required for the TF are typically readily accessible (e.g. soil texture data) and thus do not add any significant complications when added to OVERSEER. The TF retains OVERSEER as the arbitrator of the main items of N-balance in the farm system, but adds functionality by giving a better temporal discrimination of leaching from the farm system. The procedure for parameterising the TF from a comprehensive set of APSIM (Agricultural Production Systems Simulator) simulations is described. Validation of the leaching estimated by the TF was achieved through a combination of testing against an independent set of APSIM simulations and testing against experimental data. The testing of the TF showed very promising performance. The TF explained 75% of the variability of N leaching simulated by an independent APSIM dataset and agreed well with the experimental data.

Ensemble pedotransfer functions to derive hydraulic properties for New Zealand soils

Modelling water and solute transport through soil requires the characterisation of the soil hydraulic functions; however, determining these functions based on measurements is time-consuming and costly. Pedotransfer functions (PTFs), which make use of easily measurable soil properties to predict the hydraulic functions, have been proposed as an alternative to measurements. The better known and more widely used PTFs were developed in the USA or Europe, where large datasets exist. No specific PTFs have been published for New Zealand soils. To address this gap, we evaluated a range of published PTFs against an available dataset comprising a range of different soils from New Zealand and selected the best PTFs to construct an ensemble PTF (ePTF). Assessment (and adjustment when required) of published PTFs was done by comparing measurements and estimates of soil water content and the hydraulic conductivity at selected matric suction values. For each point, the best two or three PTFs were chosen to compose the ePTF, with correcting constants if needed. The outputs of the ePTF are the hydraulic properties at selected matric suctions, akin to obtaining measurements, thus allowing the fit of different equations as well as combining any available measurements. Testing of the ePTF showed promising performance, with reasonably accurate estimates of the water retention of an independent dataset. Root mean square error values averaged 0.06 m3 m–3 for various New Zealand soils, which is within the accuracy level of published PTF studies. The largest errors were found for soils with high clay content, for which the ePTF should be used with care. The performance of the ePTF for estimating soil hydraulic conductivity was not as reliable as for water content, exhibiting large scatter. Predictions of saturated hydraulic conductivity were of the same magnitude as the measurements, whereas the unsaturated values were generally under-predicted. The conductivity data available for this study were limited and highly variable. The estimates for hydraulic conductivity should therefore be used with much care, and future research should address measurements and analysis to improve the predictions. The ePTF was also used to parameterise the SWIM soil module for use in Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) simulations. Comparisons of drainage predicted by APSIM against results from lysimeter experiments suggest that the use of the derived ePTF is suited for the estimation of soil parameters for use in modelling. The ePTF is not envisaged as a substitute for measurements but is a useful tool to complement datasets with limited amounts of measured data.

A New Method to Quantify the Impact of Soil Carbon Management on Biophysical Soil Properties: The Example of Two Apple Orchard Systems in New Zealand

A new method to diagnose the environmental sustainability of specific orchard management practices was derived and tested. As a significant factor for soil quality, the soil carbon (C) management in the topsoil of the tree-row of an integrated and organic apple orchard was selected and compared. Soil C management was defined as land management practices that maintain or increase soil C. We analyzed the impact of the soil C management on biological (microbial biomass C, basal respiration, dehydrogenase activity, respiratory quotient) and physical (aggregate stability, amount of plant-available water, conductive mean pore diameter near water saturation) soil properties. Soil in the alley acted as a reference for the managed soil in the tree row. The total and hot-water-extractable C amounts served as a combined proxy for the soil C management. The soil C management accounted for 0 to 81% of the degradation or enhancement of biophysical soil properties in the integrated and organic system. In the integrated system, soil C management led to a loss of C in the top 0.3 m of the tree row within 12 yr, causing a decrease in microbial activities. In the tree row of the organic orchard, C loss occurred in the top 0.1 m, and the decrease in microbial activities was small or not significant. Regarding physical soil properties, the C loss in the integrated system led to a decrease of the aggregate stability, whereas it increased in the organic system. Generally, the impact of soil C management was better correlated with soil microbial than with the physical properties. With respect to environmental soil functions that are sensitive to the decrease in microbial activity or aggregate stability, soil C management was sustainable in the organic system but not in the integrated system.

In Situ Measurement of the Solute Adsorption Isotherm Using a Disc Permeameter

In situ observations of the resident concentration and penetration of reactive chemical underneath a disc permeameter are used to infer the adsorption isotherm that characterizes soil-solution exchange in two structured soils. In permeameters set to the unsaturated head of −40 mm, the use of the dual tracers of inert bromide and reactive 35S, in two contrasting soils, enabled resolution of their sulfate adsorption isotherms. In Manawatu fine sandy loam, a mobile-immobile water soil, measurements of the resident concentration of 35S and Br− under the disc showed sulfate to be only weakly adsorbed. However, an analytical solution for the one-dimensional dispersive entry of reactive chemical into soil indicated that for any degree of adsorption,substantial depths of infiltration (≫200–300 mm) would be required for the adsorbed concentration (S, mol kg−1) to reach equilibrium with the concentration of the influent solution (c, mol L−1). But this same equation showed that under the disc, the retardation of the reactive chemical (35S) behind the inert tracer (Br−) could be used to infer the strength of the adsorption exchange. When carried out at two different concentrations, this retardation procedure can be used to infer the nonlinear Freundlich isotherm of exchange. In the Ramiha silt loam, a fully mobile water soil, different retardations were observed during concurrent unsaturated infiltration of Br− and labeled sulfate at 20 μmol L−1 and at 2 mmol L−1 SO42−. The isotherm was found to be S=2.3c0.7. This is less than the S=3.0c0.53 measured by the standard batch procedure on saturated 1∶5 soil solution samples.

Modelling DCD effect on nitrate leaching under controlled conditions

Effects of nitrogen losses through nitrate leaching are one of the major environmental issues worldwide. To determine the potential effect of dicyandiamide (DCD), a nitrification inhibitor, on the transformation of urea nitrogen and subsequent nitrate leaching, incubation and column leaching experiments were performed. Tokomaru silt loam soil was treated with urea, DCD, or urea plus DCD. A control was also used. In the laboratory incubation experiment, the conversion of urea to ammonium (i.e. ammonification process or urea hydrolysis) occurred within a day, thereby increasing the soil pH from 5.8 to 6.9. DCD did not affect the ammonification process. However, DCD did slow down the subsequent oxidation of ammonium to nitrate (i.e. nitrification process). The half-life time of ammonium in this soil was increased from 9 days for the urea treatment to 31 days for the urea + DCD treatment. The production of nitrate was 5 times slower when DCD was added. In the leaching experiments, half the columns were leached after 1 day of incubation (Day 1), the other half 7 days later (Day 7). For Day 1, no significant differences in nitrate leaching could be seen between the treatments, as the nitrification had not yet taken place. For Day 7, DCD decreased nitrate leaching by 71% with a corresponding decrease in nitrate-induced cation leaching, including ammonium. Thus, DCD seems to be effective in decreasing both ammonium and nitrate leaching, but its high solubility and thus mobility could be a limitation to its use. The convection–dispersion equation, including source–sink terms for nitrogen transformations, ammonification, and nitrification rate constants, and a factor for nitrification inhibition by DCD, accounting for degradation and efficiency of DCD, could be used reasonably well to simulate nitrate leaching from the column leaching experiments. However, model parameter values for nitrification rate, and efficiency and decay rate for DCD, were different from those obtained from the incubation experiments, which was probably because of the difference in water content of soil between the incubation and leaching experiments.

Key Performance Indicators for Simulated Variable-Rate Irrigation of Variable Soils in Humid Regions

Decision support tools for precise irrigation scheduling are required to improve the efficiency of irrigation water use globally. This article presents a method for mapping soil variability and relating it to soil hydraulic properties so that soil management zones for variable-rate irrigation can be defined. A soil-water balance is used to schedule hypothetical irrigation events based on one blanket application of water to eliminate plant stress (uniform rate irrigation, or URI) and compares this to variable-rate irrigation (VRI), where irrigation is tailored to specific soil zone available water-holding capacity (TAWC) values. The key performance indicators, i.e., irrigation water use, drainage water loss, nitrogen leaching, energy use, irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE), and virtual water content, are used to compare URI and VRI at three contrasting sites using four years of climate data for a dairy pasture and maize crop and two years of climate data for a potato crop. Our research found that VRI saved 9% to 19% irrigation water, with accompanying energy saving. Loss of water by drainage, during the period of irrigation, was also reduced by 25% to 45% using VRI, which reduced the risk of nitrogen leaching. Virtual water content of these three primary products further illustrates potential benefits of VRI and shows that virtual water content of potato production used the least water per unit of dry matter production.

Soil assessment of apple orchards under conventional and organic management

To determine the effect of wheel traffic and two different management practices on soil compaction and its consequences on physical and chemical soil properties, we measured penetration resistance, water infiltration, bulk density, macroporosity, chemical mobility, air permeability, and soil strength in a conventional orchard (integrated fruit-production program) with bare (sprayed with herbicides) rows and an organic apple orchard with grassed rows. Resistance measurements were taken both within the tree row and the wheel track, down to a depth of 0.35 to 0.40 m. The results indicate that compaction is greater in the wheel tracks under both management methods. Compaction in the wheel track was higher under organic than conventional management. Organic management resulted in a higher macroporosity in both the row and the wheel-track than conventional management. The ‘close-to-saturation’ infiltration rate was significantly greater within the row of the organic orchard (0.06 m/h) compared with the row of the conventional orchard (0.02 m/h), and compared with the wheel tracks (0.01 m/h). The precompression stress value in the top 100 mm, a measure of the soil strength, was low on all sites. The chemical mobilities were 57 and 50% in the organic orchard, and 86 and 93% in the conventional orchard, respectively, for wheel track and row. Apart from the compaction in the wheel track of the organic orchard, physical and chemical soil characteristics were in a better condition compared with the conventional orchard.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Hydrodynamic Dispersion in a Saturated Porous Medium

By using nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMRI) we have been able to analyse dispersion at the microscopic scale during steady-state flow through water-saturated glass beads. The flow rate through the porous medium was chosen high enough in order to neglect the influence of molecular diffusion on dispersion. Velocity statistics were measured, by NMRI, within slices of increasing thickness perpendicular to the direction of flow. It took more than two bead diameters before a representative elementary volume (REV) for the mean velocity was reached. This was in a region in the middle of the column that was not influenced by the boundary conditions. There the velocity variance decreased exponentially as a function of the slice thickness, due we consider to the formation of an interconnecting streamline network. The exponential decrease in the velocity variance reflects the transition from a local pattern of stochastic–convective flow to a convective–dispersion regime at the scale of the REV. We found that the point-like preferential influx and efflux boundary condition increased velocity variances and thus enhanced longitudinal hydrodynamic dispersion. Using the transverse correlation length of longitudinal velocity variance, we derived a mean transverse dispersivity that agreed well with Saffman’s (1959) model. So we have been able to provide for the first time a direct observation verification of a part of Saffman’s (1959) conjectures. By NMRI we observed this value to be independent of the observation scale of the slice thickness.