Abstract
This study presents a preliminary proposal of a structural classification system of soil pore space seeking to group soils with similar air availability curves. The function that relates soil air content to water suction is herein called the air availability curve. The proposed system approach is similar to that of textural classification and allows classifying soil according to types of soil structural families based on nine possible sub-areas (from A to I) represented in a classification triangle, herein called the structural triangle. Besides family types, it is also necessary to predict the family orders according to different ranges of variation for the effective soil porosity. Both family type and order are obtained by parameterization of the moisture retention curve. 467 samples were classified according to the proposed methodology, which confirmed that the structural families grouped soils with similar air availability curves. This result shows the potential usefulness of the proposed methodology for pedologic knowledge and for the development of pedotransfer functions of the soil water properties.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank Dr. Javier Tomasella (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais – INPE) for the data used in this study.
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Ottoni Filho, T.B., Ottoni, M.V. (2014). A Preliminary Proposal for the Structural Classification of Soil Pore Space. 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_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06013-2_8
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