Field method for separating the contribution of surface‐connected preferential flow pathways from flow through the soil matrix

Sanders, Emily; Najm, Majdi Abou; Mohtar, Rabi H.; Kladivko, E. J.; Schulze, Darrell G.

doi:10.1029/2011wr011103

Cited by 39 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…However, consistent with our results, Kung et al () found that increased preferential flow was related to increased initial soil moisture. Sanders, Abou Najm, Mohtar, Kladivko, and Schulze () also indicated that drier ISWC conditions can result in a higher sorptive capacity of the soil matrix. A potential explanation for our results is that preferential flow occurred in stable macropore or biopore (rather than shrinkage cracks) pathways in clay loam or sandy clay loam soils, where a higher ISWC can increase infiltration depth of macropore flow as well as total infiltration volume as it reduce the lateral flow from macropores into the soil matrix (Hardie et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Effect of stand origin and slope position on infiltration pattern and preferential flow on a Loess hillslope

Mei

Zhu

et al. 2018

Land Degrad Dev

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Preferential flow is expected to provide an important pathway to replenish soil water at deep soil layers in arid or semiarid areas; however, few studies have addressed this topic, especially in semiarid Loess hillslopes. This study aimed to quantify the effect of stand origin and slope position on the contribution of preferential flow to total infiltration and spatial variations in water flow. A blue dye tracer experiment was conducted to visualize water flow in Robinia pseudoacacia plantation (PL), natural forestland (NF), and natural grassland (NG) at the upslope, midslope, and downslope, and semivariance analysis was used to determine spatial variability at the centimeter scale. The results showed that role of macropore flow was dominant in upslope and midslope, and larger in NF than that in PL and NG, due to presence of abundant root systems in the upper soil of NF. Moreover, contribution of preferential flow at the upper slope in NF was larger than that in PL. At the downslope, the role of rock fragments coverage at the downslope was emphasized, leading lateral flow dominant at the downslope in PL and NG. In addition, contribution of preferential flow and vertical variability of infiltration at the downslope in PL was higher than that in NF. The findings demonstrate that compared with PL, NF has a more positive impact on increasing infiltration and preferential flow that can replenish deep soil water, and reducing surface runoff and soil erosion. The presence of rock fragments coverage can make lateral flow dominant at the downslope on the Loess hillslope, related to water movement along the slope toward streams and catchment outlets.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Effect of stand origin and slope position on infiltration pattern and preferential flow on a Loess hillslope

Mei

Zhu

et al. 2018

Land Degrad Dev

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“…When open, these crack networks exert substantial influence on hydrological processes. For example, cracks can act as preferential flow paths, channelling water and solutes around the soil matrix (Blake et al, 1973;Bouma and Dekker, 1978;Messing and Jarvis, 1990;Bronswijk et al, 1995;Greve et al, 2010) and increasing overall rates of infiltration (Jarvis, 1991;Heppell et al, 2000;Sanders et al, 2012) and evaporation (Weisbrod et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hillslope run-off thresholds with shrink-swell clay soils

et al. 2014

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Irrigation experiments on 12 instrumented field plots were used to assess the impact of dynamic soil crack networks on infiltration and run‐off. During applications of intensity similar to a heavy rainstorm, water was seen being preferentially delivered within the soil profile. However, run‐off was not observed until soil water content of the profile reached field capacity, and the apertures of surface‐connected cracks had closed >60%. Electrical resistivity measurements suggested that subsurface cracks persisted and enhanced lateral transport, even in wet conditions. Likewise, single‐ring infiltration measurements taken before and after irrigation indicated that infiltration remained an important component of the water budget at high soil water content values, despite apparent surface sealing. Overall, although the wetting and sealing of the soil profile showed considerable complexity, an emergent property at the hillslope scale was observed: all of the plots demonstrated a strikingly similar threshold run‐off response to the cumulative precipitation amount. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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“…They accounted for connectivity by models, including critical path analysis and percolation theory. However, and despite all those attempts, modelling flow and transport processes continues to be a challenge, particularly for complex pore structures or flows associated with non-uniform flow (Sederman et al, 1998;Šimůnek et al, 2003;Sanders et al, 2012;Stewart et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of synthetic porous media using non‐Newtonian fluids: experimental evidence

Atallah

Najm

2018

European J Soil Science

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Summary The characterization of pore structures is required for a broad range of applications, from modelling flow dynamics to understanding petroleum reservoir performance. This research was based on a theoretical framework proposed by Abou Najm and Atallah for improved characterization of pore structures using Newtonian and non‐Newtonian fluids. Here, we report the first experimental evidence of the ability of non‐Newtonian shear‐thinning fluids to predict the pore structure of three synthetic porous media using only saturated infiltration experiments of water and guar gum solutions at different concentrations. The method predicted multiple distinct representative pore sizes, depending on the number of guar gum solutions used, optimized to mimic the functional behaviour of porous media in terms of flow and porosity. Statistical analysis revealed satisfactory agreement between the predicted and real pore structures in the three synthetic porous media. Highlights Experimental evidence of the ability of non‐Newtonian fluids to infer the pore structure of porous media Experiments enabled extraction of multi‐flow regimes mimicking functional flow and porosity behaviour Experiments with different guar gum concentrations on three synthetic porous media regenerated known pore structures Promising results for an inexpensive and safe new method for pore structure characterization

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Field method for separating the contribution of surface‐connected preferential flow pathways from flow through the soil matrix

Cited by 39 publications

References 26 publications

Effect of stand origin and slope position on infiltration pattern and preferential flow on a Loess hillslope

Effect of stand origin and slope position on infiltration pattern and preferential flow on a Loess hillslope

Hillslope run-off thresholds with shrink-swell clay soils

Characterization of synthetic porous media using non‐Newtonian fluids: experimental evidence

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