Determination of actual soil water content, matrix potential and water repellency in sandy soil during a dehydration experiment

Year, pages: 2019, 172 - 179

Soil water repellency (SWR) diminishes the affinity of soils towards the water and may resist wetting for durations ranging from a few seconds to hours or days depending on its persistence. It has been proposed that the origin of natural SWR is caused by organic compounds released from different plant species and sources, due to resins, waxes and other organic substances in their tissues. SWR may vary nonlinearly with soil moisture content (SMC), showing complex responses. It has been observed that small variations in water potential may have significant impacts on the wettability of water-repellent soils, and concluded that maximum soil water repellency does not necessarily occur in oven-dry soils, but at certain specific soil water potentials. The aims of this work were: i. to determine the values of SMC and corresponding values of soil matrix potential and persistence of SWR in forest soil samples during the drying process under laboratory conditions; ii. graphically analyze and quantify the drying process of the water-repellent soil surface.

Šurda, P., Čelková, A., Vitková, J., Zvala, A. 2019. Determination of actual soil water content, matrix potential and water repellency in sandy soil during a dehydration experiment. In Acta Hydrologica Slovaca, vol. 20, no.2, pp. 172-179. 2644-4690. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31577/ahs-2019-0020.02.0021

Šurda, P., Čelková, A., Vitková, J., Zvala, A. (2019). Determination of actual soil water content, matrix potential and water repellency in sandy soil during a dehydration experiment. Acta Hydrologica Slovaca, 20(2), 172-179. 2644-4690. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31577/ahs-2019-0020.02.0021

Publisher: Institute of Hydrology SAS, Dúbravská cesta 9, 841 05 Bratislava, Slovakia

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