Abstract
The water, element essential for life, is present as a large reservoir in the soil. Soil water content varies in space as a consequence of the variability of other related properties and its study is necessary to know how this variation occurs in space and time. The objective of this study was to assess the spatial and temporal variability of soil water content and its relationships with hydraulic conductivity. Soil water content was measured with a TDR equipment and the hydraulic conductivity was measured with a constant head well permeameter at 15 and 50 cm depth, in a nearly flat 1.2 ha field at the Central Experimental Farm of the Agriculture Canada, Ottawa. The soil is classified as a Rideau soil series, is primarily clay to silty clay texture. Sampling was made on a 10 m spacing square grid with 164 sampling points. Soil water content was measured on 33 dates during the frost free months in 1987, 1988 and 1989. The rate of change in soil water content was calculated for the periods which did not have any rain. The spatial variability was analyzed examining the descriptive statistical parameters, the parameters of the models fitted to individual semivariograms as a function of time and the maps obtained by kriging interpolation. It was concluded that soil structure played a very important role on the spatial distribution of hydraulic conductivity and water content. Temporal stability of water in the soil is quite different during the year probably because of the hydraulic conductivity role. Parabolic trend removal worked well all through the year probably because of the topography. The behavior of spatial variability the rate of change in water of soil did not repeat in different times of the year studied.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ávila LF, Mello CR, Mello JM, Silva AM (2011) Padrão espaço-temporal da umidade volumétrica do solo em uma bacia hidrográfica com predominância de Latossolos. Rev Bras Ciênc Solo Viçosa 35:1801–1810
Buttafuoco G, Castrignano A, Busoni E, Dimase AC (2005) Studying the spatial structure evolution of soil water content using multivariate geostatistics. J Hydrol 311:202–218
Gonçalves ACA, Folegatti MV, Silva AP (1999) Estabilidade temporal da distribuição espacial da umidade do solo em área irrigada por pivô central. Rev Bras Ciênc Solo 23:55–164
Grego CR, Vieira SR (2005) Variabilidade espacial de propriedades físicas do solo em uma parcela experimental Revista Brasileira de Ciência do Solo (Impresso). Viçosa 29:169–177
Grego CR, Vieira SR, Antonio AM, Della Rosa SC (2006) Geostatistical analysis for soil water content under no tillage cropping system. Sci Agric 63:341–350
Journel AG, Huijbregts CJ (1978) Mining geostatistics. Academic, San Diego, 600 p
Kachanoski RG, De Jong E (1988) Scale dependence and the temporal persistence of spatial patterns of soil water storage. Water Resour Res 24:85–91
Matheron G (1963) Principles of geostatistics. Econ Geol (Lancaster) 58:1246–1266
Mcbratney AB, Webster R (1986) Choosing functions for semivariograms of soil properties and fitting them to sampling estimates. J Soil Sci 37:617–639
Nielsen DR, Tillotson PM, Vieira SR (1983) Analysing field – Measured soil water properties agricultural. Water Manage 6:63–109
Reynolds WD, Elrick DE (1986) A method for simultaneous in situ measurements in the vadose one of field saturated hydraulic conductivity, sorptivity, and the conductivity-pressure head relationship. Ground Water Monit Rev 6:84–95
Reynolds WD, Vieira SR, Topp GC (1992) An assessment of the single-head analysis for the constant head well permeameter. Can J Soil Sci (Ottawa) 72:489–501
Topp GC, Davis JL (1985) Measurement of soil water content using time domain reflectometry (TDR): a field evaluation. Soil Sci Soc Am J 49:574–582
Vauchaud G, De Silane P, Balabanis A, Vauclin M (1985) Temporal stability of spatially measured soil water probability density function. Soil Sci Soc Am J 49:822–827
Vieira SR (2000) Uso de geoestatística em estudos de variabilidade espacial de propriedades do solo. In: Novais RF (ed) Tópicos em Ciência do Solo. Sociedade Brasileira de Ciência do Solo, Viçosa, pp 3–87
Vieira SR, Hatfield JL, Nielsen DR, Biggar JW (1983) Geoestatistical theory and application to variability of some agronomical properties. Hilgardia 51(3):1–75
Vieira SR, Reynolds WD, Topp GC (1988) Spatial variability of hydraulic properties in a highly structured clay soil. In: Validation of flow and transport models for the unsaturated zone Ruidoso. Conference Proceedings Ruidoso, Novo Mexico: Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, New Mexico State University, pp 471–483
Vieira SR, Lombardi Neto F, Burrows IT (1991) Mapeamento da chuva máxima provável para o Estado de São Paulo. Rev Bras Ciênc Solo 15:93–98
Vieira SR, Nielsen DR, Biggar JW, Tillotson PM (1997) The scaling of semivariograms and the kriging estimation. Rev Bras Ciênc Solo 21:525–533
Vieira SR, Grego CR, Toop GC (2008) Analyzing spatial and temporal variability of soil water content. Bragantia 67:463–469
Vieira SR, Carvalho JRP, Ceddia MB, Paz González A (2010a) Detrending non stationary data for geostatistical applications. Bragantia 69(Suplemento):1–8
Vieira SR, Carvalho JRP, Paz González A (2010b) Jack knifing for semivariogram validation. Bragantia 69(Suplemento):97–105
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Vieira, S.R., Grego, C.R., Topp, G.C., Reynolds, W.D. (2014). Spatial Relationships Between Soil Water Content and Hydraulic Conductivity in a Highly Structured Clay Soils. In: Teixeira, W., Ceddia, M., Ottoni, M., Donnagema, G. (eds) Application of Soil Physics in Environmental Analyses. Progress in Soil Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06013-2_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06013-2_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-06012-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-06013-2
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)