Abstract

LOZANO, Luis Alberto et al. Difusividad del agua en el suelo: un método simple de laboratorio para su determinación. Cienc. suelo [online]. 2017, vol.35, n.1, pp.11-19. ISSN 1850-2067.

Soil water diffusivity (D) determination is important as this hydraulic property is fundamental in order to characterize unsaturated water and solute transport in soils. Determination of this property is complex, time consuming, and requires quite expensive instruments. The objectives of this work were: i) to propose a simpler and more robust method based on an improvement of Whisler et al. (1968) to determine the soil water diffusivity function and ii) to determine D and sorptivity (S) in a soil under different management systems. Soil A-horizon was sampled under three management systems (T1: Natural grassland, T2: Polyphitic Pasture, and T3: no tillage). The samples were sieved through a 2 mm mesh, and afterwards packed into 70 cm long and 10 cm diameter columns. The columns were analyzed under horizontal infiltration and D was determined as a function of soil water content that varied in function of time for fixed positions along the column, these latter were obtained from low cost soil moisture capacitance sensors. The results showed that the proposed methodology was valid for the studied soils. The soil management system significantly affected D and S values. D values corresponding to T3 were greater compared to T1 and T2 (D values ranged between 0.00033 and 0.0321 cm² s^-1) implying that these soils had the ability to transmit water easier under non-saturated conditions than under grazing. In conclusion, the proposed methodology in this work allowed to determine D in a simple and low cost way, and to analyze the influence of soil management systems on this property.

Keywords : Non-saturated flux; Sorptivity; Horizontal infiltration.

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