6/9/19

Soil water

Gary Sheridan
Department of Ecosystem and Forest and Sciences

Learning objective, concepts

To understand how water moves into and through soil

and why this is important

• soil as a store for plant water

• flow through soil: soil water potential, hydraulic conductivity
• flow into soil; infiltration, runoff
• water repellence, compaction

A place with no soil…

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You can think of the soil like a sponge…

…or as a bucket of water for plants

How big is the bucket? How much water

can the soil store?

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Soil includes solids, pore-space, and water

Soil pores as “capillaries”

Soil water potential

• How much soil water can be stored?

• Where will soil water move to?
• How quickly will it move?

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What is potential energy?

• potential energy is the energy that is stored in a system

• force pulls object back to lower energy position
• is relative to some reference position

Soil water content and potential energy

• Soil water content tells you how much water there is in

the soil.
• Soil water energy, potential energy, tells you how that
water will behave eg;

• How accessible is it to plants?

• How quickly will it move through the profile?

• How will it move from one part of the soil

profile to another ?

Soil water energy: Definition

The energy status of soil water (or soil water potential) is

defined as the difference in free energy between the soil
water and a known amount of pure, free, water at a
standard temperature, pressure, and height above sea
level.

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Soil water energy

When water is added to a soil, work is done by

the water to achieve a maximum reduction in
free energy
Conversely, work would have to be done on the
water to remove it from the soil

Soil water potential equation

Y = Ym +Ys + Yp + Y g
Y = total soil water potential
which is made up of soil water :

Ym = matric potential
Ys = osmotic potential
Yp = pressure potential
Y g = gravitational potential
component potentials are commonly expressed as a suction, a negative pressure (eg -kPa, -Mpa)

Matric potential

Y = Ym +Ys + Yp + Y g

Ym = matric potential of the soil water

• due to the combined effect of adhesion and capillarity
• is related to the pore radius
• usually the dominant term in the soil water equation
• in soil (above the water table) the value of the matric potential is always negative
• below the water table the matric potential is zero (0)

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Classification of soil water

Saturation, Field capacity, wilting point

and available water

Saturation
When all the soil pores are filled with water the soil is said to be

saturated (Y approx. zero)

Field Capacity
If a soil is then allowed to drain for 1 to 3 days, water will drain from
the macropores (mostly by gravity) and the soil will reach field

capacity (Y approx. -10 to -5 kPa)

Saturation, Field capacity, wilting point

and available water

Permanent Wilting Point

As the soil dries, plants will begin to wilt to conserve water, at first
during the day, then both day and night. At this point, termed the
permanent wilting point, (or wilting coefficient) plants will die if
water is not added. (Y approx. -15000 kPa)

Plant Available water

Water retained in the soil between field capacity and permanent
wilting point is said to be available to plants.

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Plant available water varies with texture

Water characteristic
curves

eg. Effect of soil texture on

available water

Soil-Plant-Atmosphere
Continuum (SPAC)

• water moves through the SPAC due to the water potential gradient from
the soil, through the plant and into the atmosphere
• dry air has a great capacity for water vapour eg the water potential of
air (90% humidity & 20o ) is -14,200 kPa
• compare this to the water potential of available soil water (-10 to -
15,000 kPa
• clearly, the soil water potential very relevant to plant growth

Soil-Plant-
Atmosphere
Continuum
(SPAC)

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Quiz question

http://qp.unimelb.edu.au/helencs

What are the factors that will determine how much plant available water I
have in the soil?

a) The amount of water that is present within the entire soil depth at water
potentials between field capacity and wilting point
b) Soil depth, field capacity and wilting point
c) The amount of water that is present within the plant rooting depth at
water potentials between field capacity and wilting point
d) The amount of water that the soil holds that has not become runoff
e) The amount of water the soil holds in millimetres between field capacity
and wilting point

Hydraulic conductivity

Darcy’s Law

For water movement through a porous media, the rate of flow

is directly proportional to the driving force and inversely
proportional to the resistance.

Flow rate = -K grad Y grad Y = ∆ Ψ /∆z

w here flow rate is the volum e per unit tim e crossing an area A per pendicular to the flow

K = the hydraulic conductivity

g rad Y = change in w ater potential per unit distance in the direction of flow

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Measuring saturated hydraulic

conductivity in the lab

Flow rate = -K grad Y

K = -Flow rate/grad Y

Hydraulic conductivity and water potential

Saturated Dry

Relationship between suction and

hydraulic conductivity

“wet” “dry”

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Measuring saturated hydraulic conductivity

in the field

Well permeameter Disk permeameter

Double ring infiltrometer

Infiltration

Infiltration rate
(soil flooded at the surface)

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Initially dry vs initially wet soil

Green and Ampt (1911) infiltration

equation

Soil water profile during infiltration

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Soil water
profile as time
progresses

Depth

Macropore and matrix flow

Macropore flow; Poiseuille’s equation

Infiltration excess vs saturation excess

runoff generation

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Water repellence

Compaction

Key soil water concepts

• soil is a store for plant water (PAWC)

• water potential controls where water moves
• water potential and hydraulic conductivity control how quickly
water moves
• infiltration is controlled at the soil surface (water repellence,
compaction, …)
• runoff is generated by saturation or infiltration excess

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END

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