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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Environmental Microbial & Food Safety Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #290207

Title: On the effect of soil hydraulic properties on the relationship between spatial variation and spatial mean of soil water contents

Author
item MARTINEZ, GONZALO - Universidad De Cordoba
item Pachepsky, Yakov
item VEREECKEN, HARRY - Julich Research Center

Submitted to: European Geophysical Society; American Geophysical Union; European Union of Geosciences
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/27/2013
Publication Date: 4/7/2013
Citation: Martinez, G., Pachepsky, Y.A., Vereecken, H. 2013. On the effect of soil hydraulic properties on the relationship between spatial variation and spatial mean of soil water contents. [abstract] European Geophysical Society; American Geophysical Union; European Union of Geosciences. Vol 15.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Understanding soil moisture variability and its relationship with water content at various scales is a key issue in hydrological research. In this work we analyze this relationship by using the Monte-Carlo simulations of unsaturated flow in bare soils for eleven USDA textural classes. Parameters of the water retention characteristic and their spatial variability determine to a large extent the shape of the soil moisture variance-mean water content dependence. It was found that the Brooks-Corey parameter, which describes the pore size distribution of soils, controls the maximum value of the soil moisture standard deviation which varied in the range from 0.17 to 0.23 in simulations. Results of this work indicate the potential opportunity to estimate soil hydraulic properties and their variability from spatially distributed measurements of soil moisture content.