- Title
- Using dye and bromide tracers to identify preferential water flow in agricultural hillslope soil under controlled conditions
- Creator
- Defterdarović, Jasmina; Krevh, Vedran; Filipović, Lana; Kovač, Zoran; Phogat, Vinod; He, Hailong; Baumgartl, Thomas; Filipović, Vilim
- Date
- 2023
- Type
- Text; Journal article
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/196751
- Identifier
- vital:18755
- Identifier
-
https://doi.org/10.3390/w15122178
- Identifier
- ISSN:2073-4441 (ISSN)
- Abstract
- Processes in hillslope soils present a particular challenge for agricultural production and soil management due to their hydropedological specifics and high soil erosion risk. Soil heterogeneities can cause preferential and/or lateral flow on the entire hillslope resulting in the off-site movement of water, fertilizers and chemicals used in crop production. A study was conducted under controlled conditions in a laboratory with undisturbed soil cores (250 cm3), which were used to estimate the soil hydraulic properties (SHP) using HYPROP and WP4C devices, while undisturbed soil columns (diameter = 16 cm, length = 25 cm) were used for the evaluation of preferential flow pathways using potassium bromide and Brilliant Blue. Samples were excavated in triplicate from the hilltop, backslope and footslope regions within the inter-rows of a vineyard from a critical zone observatory, SUPREHILL, in Croatia in Dystric Luvic Stagnosol. The aim of this study was to determine if the erosion-affected hillslope position affected the physical, chemical and hydraulic properties of soil and to identify water flow and possible preferential flow using dye and bromide tracers. The results of the sensor measurements and estimated SHPs were in agreement, showing a faster leaching of the irrigated rainwater in the footslope column. The tracer experiments showed variability even in the columns taken from the same position on the hillslope, which can be linked to plant roots and soil fauna activity. Altogether, the results showed a deeper loose layer at the footslope as a consequence of the soil erosion, which then resulted in higher hydraulic conductivity and the leached mass of the bromide due to better soil structure and pore connectivity. Thus, due to significant differences in the leached mass of bromide, this research should be later expanded in field experiments to reveal the impact of surface runoff, subsurface preferential and lateral flow on a larger scale. © 2023 by the authors.
- Publisher
- Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)
- Relation
- Water (Switzerland) Vol. 15, no. 12 (2023), p.
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Rights
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- Rights
- Copyright © 2023 by the authors
- Rights
- Open Access
- Subject
- MD Multidisciplinary; Brilliant Blue; Bromide; Sensors; Soil hydraulic properties; Undisturbed soil columns
- Full Text
- Reviewed
- Funder
- This research was funded by the Croatian Science Foundation, grant number UIP-2019-04-5409, under the following project name: “Subsurface preferential transport processes in agricultural hillslope soils—SUPREHILL”.
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