The Effect of Field Capacity in Determination and Evaluation of the Soil Physical Quality Indices

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Soil and Water Research Department, Khuzestan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Ahvaz, Iran

2 Soil and Water Research Institute, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran

Abstract

Estimating the soil physical indices requires determination of soil moisture content at field capacity (FC). Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of various soil suctions according to field capacity on different soil physical quality indices and subsequently to evaluate the soil physical quality based on the calculated indices. In this study, 35 soil samples from agricultural lands of Alborz province were used to calculate Dexter's S, air capacity, plant available water and relative field capacity indices. The results showed that only 20 % of the soil samples were in weak soil physical quality groups (S < 0.035) and the rest of soil samples had a good or better soil physical quality (80 %) on the basis of Dexter's S index. However, the results of other indices showed by assuming a FC moisture content at soil suction of 100, 330 cm and calculated suction based on the negligible drainage rate concept, 12, 44 and 70% of soil samples, respectively had a good physical quality in terms of soil aeration, water availability and microbial activity. There was no significant difference between the average FC at equivalent soil suction of 330 cm and the proposed approach based on the negligible drainage rate. Hence, the soil physical indices based on FC at soil suction of 330 cm can be used to evaluate the soil physical quality of the studied soils. Moreover, the results showed that despite of good ability of S index, use of other soil physical quality indices leads to a more comprehensive assessment of soil physical limitation on crop growth. However, determination of the soil quality indices requires an accurate estimation of soil moisture content at the field capacity.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

Assouline, S. and Or, D. (2014). The concept of field capacity revisited: Defining intrinsic static and dynamic criteria for soil internal drainage dynamics. Water Resource Research, 50: 1-16.
Cassel, D. K. and Nielsen, D. R. (1986). Field capacity and available water capacity. In Methods of Soil Analysis, Part 1. Physical and Mineralogical Methods. Agronomy Monograph, 9: 901–926.
Cockroft, B. and Olsson, K. A. (1997). Case study of soil quality in south-eastern Australia: management of structure for roots in duplex soils. In E. G. Gregorich and M. R. Carter, (Ed.), Soil Quality for Crop Production and Ecosystem Health. Developments in Soil Science: Elsevier. (pp. 339–350). New York, NY.
Colman, E. A. (1947). A laboratory procedure for determining the field capacity of soils. Soil Science, 63: 277–283.
Dane, J. H. and Hopmans, J. W. (2002) Pressure cell. In J. H. Dane and G. C. Topp, (Ed.), Methods of Soil Analysis. Part 4, Physical Methods: SSSA Book Series. (pp. 684–688). Soil Science Society of America, Inc: Madison, WI.
Dexter, A. R. (2004). Soil physical quality. Part I: Theory, effects of soil texture, density, and organic matter, and effects on root growth. Geoderma. 120: 201-214
Dexter, A. R. and Richard, G. (2009). Tillage of soils in relation to their bi-modal pore size distributions. Soil and Tillage Research, 103: 113–118.
Doran, J. W. and Parkin, T. B. (1994). Defining and assessing soil quality. In J. W. Doran, D. C. Coleman, D. F. Bezdicek, and B. A. Stewart (Ed.), Defining soil quality for a sustainable environment. SSSA Spec. Publ: Soil Science Society of America. Madison, WI.
Doran, J. W., Mielke, L. N., Power, J. F. (1990). Microbial activity as regulated by soil water filled pore space. Symposium III-3, Ecology of Soil Microorganisms in the Microhabitat Environments III. Transactions of the 14th International Congress of Soil Science, (pp. 94–99). August 12–18, Kyoto, Japan.
Emami, H.m Lakzian, A. and Mohagerpour, M. (2010). Study of the relationship between slope of retention curve and some physical properties of soil quality. Journal of Water and Soil, 24 (5): 1027-1035. (In Farsi)
Gee, G. W. and Or, D. (2002). Particle-size analysis. In J. H. Dane and G. C. Topp (Ed.), Methods of Soil Analysis. Part 4. Physical Methods: SSSA Book Series. (pp. 255- 293). Madison.
Ghiberto, P. J., Imhoff, S., Libardi, P.L., Silva, A.P., Tormena, C.A. and Pilatti, M.A. (2015). Soil physical quality of Mollisols quantified by a global index. Scientia Agricola, 72(2): 167–174.
Grossman, R. B. and Reinsch, T. G. (2002). Bulk density and linear extensibility. In J. H. Dane and G. C. Clake (Ed.), Methods of soil analysis. Part 4. Physical Methods: SSSA Book Series (pp. 201-228). Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
Jamison, V. C. (1956). Pertinent factors governing the availability of soil moisture to plants. Soil Science, 81: 459–471.
Kirkham, M. B. (2005). Principles of soil and plant water relations, Elsevier Academic Press, Amsterdam.
Miller, R. D., and McMurdie, J. L. (1953). Field capacity in laboratory columns, Soil Science Society of America Journal, 17: 185–190.
Moebius, B. N., van Es, H. M., Schindelbeck, R. R., Idowu, O. J., Clune, D. J. and Thies, J. E. (2007). Evaluation of laboratory-measured soil properties as indicatore of soil physical quality. Soil Science, 172(11): 895-912.
Moncada, M. P., Ball, B. C., Gabriels, D., Lobo, D. and Cornelis, W. M. (2015). Evaluation of soil physical quality index S for some tropical and temperate medium-textured soils. Soil Science Society of American Journal, 79:9–19.
Reynolds, W. D., Bowman, B. T., Drury, C. F., Tan, C. S. and Lu, X. (2002). Indicators of good soil physical quality: density and storage parameters. Geoderma, 110: 131-146.
Reynolds, W. D., Drury, C. F., Tan, C. S., Fox, C. A., and Yang, X. M. (2009). Use of indicators and pore volume function characteristics to quantify soil physical quality. Geoderma, 152: 252-263.
Reynolds, W. D., Drury, C. F., Yang, X. M. and Tan, C. S. (2008). Optimal soil physical quality inferred through structural regression and parameter interactions. Geoderma, 146: 466–474.
Rezaee, L., Moosavi, A. A., Davatgar, N. and Shabanpor Shahrestani, M. (2017). Comparison of different soil water retention curve models for evaluation of soil quality index (S) in paddy soils. Iranian Journal of Soil Research, 31(4): 509-524. (In Farsi)
Shahab, H., Emami, H., Haghnia, Gh. Karimi, A. (2011). Determination the optimal range of pore volume distribution by using of soil physical quality indicators and effect of soil properties on Sgi index. Journal of Water and Soil, 25(4): 881-891. (In Farsi)
Shirazi, M. A. and Borsma, L. (1984). A unifying quantitative analysis of soil texture. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 48: 142-147.
Skopp, J., Jawson, M. D., Doran, J. W. (1990). Steady-state aerobic microbial activity as a function of soil water content. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 54: 1619–1625.
Topp, G. C., Reynolds, W. D., Cook, F. J., Kirby, J. M. and Carter, M. R. (1997). Physical attributes of soil quality. In E. G. Gregorich and M. R. Carter (Ed.), Soil Quality for Crop Production and Ecosystem Health. Developments in Soil Science: Elsevier, 25: 21– 58.
Twarakavi, N. K. C., Sakai, M. and Sˇimu°nek, J. (2009). An objective analysis of the dynamic nature of field capacity. Water Resource Research, 45: W10410.
USDA, Economic Research Service (1997). Agricultural resources and environmental indicators, 1996-1997. Agric. Handb. 712. U.S. Gov. Print. Office, Washington, DC.
Van Genuchten, M. T. (1980). A closed-form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 44: 892-897.
Veihmeyer, F. J. and Hendrickson, A. H. (1927). The relation of soil moisture to cultivation and plant growth. Proceeding the 1st International Congress of Soil Science, 3: 498–513.
Walkley, A. and Black, T. A. (1934). An examination of Deglijareff method for determining soil organic matter and a proposed modification of the choromic acid titration method. Soil Science, 37: 29-38.
Warrick, A.W. (2002). Soil Physics Companion. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, USA.
Wesseling, J. and van Wijk, W. R. (1957). Soil physical conditions in relation to drain depth. In J. N. Luthin (Ed.), Drainage of agricultural lands: American Society of Agronomy, Madison, Wisconson.
White, R. E. (2006). Principles and Practice of Soil Science. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, UK.
 
Iranian Journal of Soil and Water Research
Volume 50, Issue 4
August 2019
Pages 836-846

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics