Stratification response of soil water content during rainfall events under different rainfall patterns

Abstract

Many researchers have studied the influence of rainfall patterns on soil water movement processes using rainfall simulation experiments. However, less attention has been paid to the influence under natural condition. In this paper, rainfall, soil water content (SWC), and soil temperature at 10-, 20-, 30-, 40-, and 50-cm depths were simultaneously monitored at 1-min intervals to measure the variation in SWC (SWCv) in response to rainfall under different rainfall patterns. First, we classified rainfall events into four patterns. During the study period, the main pattern was the advanced rainfall pattern (38% of all rainfall events), whereas the delayed, central, and uniform rainfall patterns had similar frequencies of about 20%. During natural rainfall, rainwater rapidly passed through the top soil layers (10-40 cm) and was accumulated in the bottom layer (50 cm). When a high rainfall pulse occurred, the water storage balance was disturbed, resulting in the drainage of initial soil water from the top layers into the deeper layers. Therefore, the critical function of the top layers and the bottom layers was infiltration and storage, respectively. The source of water stored in the bottom layer was not only rainfall but also the initial soil water in the upper soil layers.Changes in soil temperature at each soil depth were comonitored with SWCv to determine the movement characteristics of soil water under different rainfall patterns.Under the delayed rainfall pattern, preferential flows preferred to occur. Under the other rainfall patterns, matrix flow was the main form of soil water movement. Rainfall amount was a better indicator than rainfall intensity for SWCv in the bottom layer under the delayed rainfall pattern. These results provide insights into the responses of SWCv under different rainfall patterns in northern China.

Effect of strip tillage widths on soil moisture, soil temperature and soil structure in northeast China

“…Many studies have shown that soil moisture is affected by rainfall conditions (Roberts et al, 2005;Wang et al, 2018). Similar results were observed in our study; specifically, our findings indicate that soil moisture in all three treatments varied with the amount of rainfall during the monitoring period.…”

Spatio‐temporal variability of multi‐layer soil water at a hillslope scale in the critical zone of the Chinese Loess Plateau

“…The maximum and minimum SWC appeared in the 50‐cm and 280‐cm soil layers, with values of 11.4 and 8.6%, respectively. This results was due to the infiltration depth of a single precipitation event being 50 cm under normal conditions (A, Wang, Sun, Xue, & Kiem, 2018), whereas the annual cumulative infiltration depth of precipitation in the study area is less than 200 cm and the depth of Robinia pseudoacacia L . root is approximately 300 cm (Table 2).…”

Constructing a Model of Poplus spp. Growth Rate Based on the Model Fusion and Analysis of Its Growth Rate Differences and Distribution Characteristics under Different Classes of Environmental Indicators

“…The growth rate of poplar trees in the large diameter class appears to be less responsive to rainfall, potentially due to factors like root hypoxia or root decay arising from excessive moisture in such conditions. Additionally, future research should emphasize the impact of rainfall on soil moisture and the water absorption capability of tree roots in soils with varying thicknesses-areas that are worthy of investigation [62][63][64][65]. However, our study did not extensively delve into these particular aspects.…”