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Bypass Flow in Soil

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Agrophysics

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Synonyms

Funnel flow; Macropore flow; Preferential flow

Definition

Bypass flow. This phenomenon has been described also as short circuiting flow of water in soil, indicating a situation in which surface water is connected with water in the subsurface due to rapid infiltration. Here, infiltrating water is percolating along preferential pathways (i.e., macropores, cracks, fissures, decayed-root channels, or worm burrows) thereby bypassing most of the bulk soil volume.

Preferential flow. This is a general expression to describe water movement along preferred flow paths in soil.

Macropore flow. Preferential flow in structured soil along (large capillary- and) non capillary-sized macropores (i.e., cracks or biopores). The expression macropore flowis mostly used to indicate preferential flow in continuous root channels, earthworm burrows, structural fissures, or in shrinkage cracks in well-structured finer-textured soils. Here, flow paths are varying in type from individual macropores to a...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Soil Landscape Research, Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) Müncheberg, Eberswalder Strasse 84, D-15374, Müncheberg, Germany

    Horst H. Gerke

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  1. Horst H. Gerke
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Correspondence to Horst H. Gerke .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Agrophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Lublin, Poland

    Jan Gliński , Józef Horabik  & Jerzy Lipiec ,  & 

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Gerke, H.H. (2011). Bypass Flow in Soil. In: Gliński, J., Horabik, J., Lipiec, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Agrophysics. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3585-1_23

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