Soil micro-penetration resistance as an index of its infiltration processes during rainfall

Rainfall infiltration is one of the most important driving factors of geological hazards, ecological environment problems, and engineering accidents. Understanding the principle of soil wetting during rainfall infiltration and its influence on soil mechanical properties is crucial for preventing geological hazards. In this study, micro-penetration tests coupled with moisture monitoring were performed to investigate the infiltration process during wetting through the measured change in mechanical characteristics. Results show that penetration resistance increases in the deep layer gradually. With increasing infiltration time,the wetting front keeps moving downward, and its range becomes wider. A slight increase of the penetration resistance in the shallow layer(d ≤ 17.5 mm) is observed. However, the penetration resistance in the middle layer(22.5 mm ≤ d ≤ 32.5 mm) decreases firstly before a slight increase. In the deep layer(d ≥ 37.5 mm), the penetration resistance decreases continuously during infiltration. Based on the measured water content profile during infiltration, it is found that the evolution of soil mechanical characteristics is fully responsible by the infiltration-induced re-distribution of water content along depth. Generally, the penetration resistance decreases exponentially with increasing water content in the soil. When the water content is low, wetting can weaken soil strength significantly, whereas this effect diminishes when the moisture surpasses a certain threshold. The results highlight that the penetration curves and water content profile show close inter-dependency and consistency, which verifies the feasibility of using micro-penetration to investigate rainfall infiltration and wetting process in surface soil layer or laboratory small-scale soil samples. This method enables fast, versatile and high-resolution measurements of infiltration process and moisture distribution in soil.

Triangle Method for Estimating Soil Surface Wetness from Satellite Imagery in Allahabad District, Uttar Pradesh, India

Soil surface wetness is indispensable land surface parameter in agriculture, hydrology and environmental engineering. This paper explores the relationship between surface radiant temperature and fractional vegetation cover derived from satellite imagery to estimate soil surface wetness (triangle method) in Allahabad district. The pixel distributions create triangular shapes because the range of surface radiant temperature decreases as the amount of vegetation cover increases and sufficient number of pixels exists. A very weak correlation is found between the simulated soil surface wetness and ground measured soil moisture at deeper soil layers (R2 < 0.15) on all the dates under investigation. This is because the drying rates at the surface discontinue to be linearly correlated to that at lower levels (depths). The standing water pixels distort the shape of the triangle especially at lower left edge of the triangle. This distortion is removable. The spatial and temporal inhomogeneity of soil surface wetness is examined.

Does overshoot in leaf development of ponderosa pine in wet years leads to bark beetle outbreaks on fine-textured soils in drier years?

Background： Frequent outbreaks of insects and diseases have been recorded in the native forests of western North America during the last few decades, but the distribution of these outbreaks has been far from uniform. In some cases, recent climatic variations may explain some of this spatial variation along with the presence of expansive forests composed of dense, older trees. Forest managers and policy makers would benefit if areas especially prone to disturbance could be recognized so that mitigating actions could be taken. Methods： We use two ponderosa pine-dominated sites in western Montana, U.S.A. to apply a modeling approach that couples information acquired via remote sensing, soil surveys, and local weather stations to assess where bark beetle outbreaks might first occur and why. Although there was a general downward trend in precipitation for both sites over the period between 1998 and 2010 （slope =-1.3, R2 = 0.08）, interannual variability was high. Some years showed large increases followed by sharp decreases. Both sites had similar topography and fire histories, but bark beetle activity occurred earlier （circa 2000 to 2001） and more severely on one site than on the other. The initial canopy density of the two sites was also similar, with leaf area indices ranging between 1.7-2.0 m2. m-2. We wondered if the difference in bark beetle activity was related to soils that were higher in clay content at site I than at site II. To assess this possibility, we applied a process-based stand growth model （3-PG） to analyze the data and evaluate the hypotheses. Results： We found that when wet years were followed by drier years, the simulated annual wood production per unit of leaf area, a measure of tree vigor, dropped below a critical threshold on site I but not on site II. Conclusion： We concluded that the difference in vulnerability of the two stands to beetle outbreaks can be explained largely by differences in gross photosynthesis attributed to the fact that an equivalent amount of stored water in the rooting zone （100 mm） is extracted less efficiently from fine-textured soils than from coarse-textured ones.

Soil Wetting Patterns and Water Distribution as Affected by Irrigation for Uncropped Ridges and Furrows

The ridge-furrow tillage combined with furrow irrigation is being more widely applied and has been shown to be effective in the Loess Plateau of China. Accurate characterization of water infiltration behavior under ridge-furrow irrigation could provide guidelines and criteria for future irrigation system design and operation. Our objective was to investigate soil water behavior during ponding infiltration in a cross-sectional ridge-furrow configuration. Soil water movement within three different soil textures was tested by tracking the spatial and temporal soil water content(SWC) variations in a soil chamber. The two-dimensional transient flow initially transferred rapidly, but gradually decreased with elapsed infiltration time, approaching a stable flow after 90 min. A technical parameter equation incorporating the Philip equation was developed using the water balance method to accurately predict total applied water volume(TAWV). The wetting patterns moved outward in an elliptical shape. The wetted lateral and downward distances fitted using equations accounted for capillary and gravitational driving forces in variably wetted soil media. Increasing initial SWC resulted in an increase in wetted soil volume, which can also be caused by decreasing bulk density in a homogeneous soil. Higher water level produced greater wetted lateral distance and more irrigation uniformity. The wetted lateral distance was almost identical to the wetted depth in silty clay loam soil; hence ridge-furrow irrigation should be implemented in such finer-textured soils. The wetted soil volume differed markedly among different soil textures(hydraulic properties), demonstrating that these properties can largely determine soil water spreading patterns and distribution.

Cooling performance of earth-to-air heat exchangers applied to a poultry barn in semi-desert areas of south Iraq

Earth-to-air heat exchangers(EAHE)can reduce the energy consumption required for heating and cooling of buildings.The composition and the thermal characteristics of the soil influence the heat exchange capacity,and the soil moisture can furthermore affect thermal performance of EAHE.The aim of this study was to compare the thermal performance of EAHE in dry and artificially wetted soil.Tests were carried out in the Basra Province(Iraq),in a semi-desert area.Two experimental EAHE were built in a poultry barn and tested from June 2013 to September 2013.The pipe exchangers were buried at 2 m deep.One heat exchanger operated in dry soil(DE),while the other one operated in artificially wetted soil(WE).In the WE system,a drip tubing placed 10 cm above the air pipe wetted the soil around the exchanger.Air temperatures at the inlet and at the outlet of both the exchangers as well as soil temperature at 2 m deep were continuously monitored.The experimental results confirmed that wetting the soil around EAHE improves the general heat exchange efficiency.The coefficient of cooling performance(COP)of the earth-to-air heat exchangers system was evaluated on the basis of the ratio between the heat removed from the air or added to the air and the energy input.During the day,with an average COP of 6.41,the WE system cooled the air more than the DE system,which reported a value of 5.07.On average,in the hottest hours of the day,the outlet temperature of the WE was 37.35℃ while in the DE it was 38.91℃.Moreover,during the nighttime,the WE system warmed the air more than the DE system.