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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #103393
Title: LABORATORY EVALUATION OF A TDR METHOD FOR DETERMINING WATER FLOW AND SOLUTE TRANSPORT PARAMETERS

Author
item LEE, J - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
item HORTON, R - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
item NOBORIO, K - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
item Jaynes, Dan

Submitted to: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/4/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: Lee, J.H., Horton, R., Noborio, K., Jaynes, D.B. 1999. Laboratory evaluation of a TDR method for determining water flow and solute transport parameters [CD-ROM]. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts. Madison, Wisconsin.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: A simple field applicable method to measure solute transport properties using time domain reflectometry (TDR) was developed and evaluated by laboratory experiments. One method using a series of fluorobenzoate tracers based on resident concentrations for estimating two domain solute transport model parameters (immobile water content, Wim, mass exchange coefficient, alpha, and dispersion coefficient, Dm) has been successfully used to characterize solute transport in soil. However, the method was time consuming and expensive. We developed and evaluated a simple TDR method for obtaining Wim, alpha, and Dm. The TDR method used a 20-cm vertically installed probe, and a 8-cm probe installed diagonally into 2-cm surface soil. We compared the estimated parameters from the new method versus those obtained from effluent breakthrough curve data and the fluorobenzoate tracer method. In most cases, the estimates of Wim/W and Dm from the TDR method were within the 95% confidence interval of the estimates from the effluent, but the alpha estimates did not always agree. The TDR method is relatively simple, inexpensive, and has advantages over the tracer method and the conventional effluent method for measuring solute transport properties.