ARS | Publication request: BROMIDE TRACER EXPERIMENTS TO ILLUSTRATE SALT MOVEMENT IN A CRACKING CLAY SOIL

Submitted to: Agronomy Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: September 19, 1995
Publication Date: N/A

Technical Abstract: Water and solute transport during overland flow from basin or furrow irrigation is a complex process; made even more complex when soils exhibit high shrink-well behavior that creates large cracks. The purpose of our experiments was to characterize water and solute movement through soils that develop large shrinkage cracks upon drying. A series of bromide tracer experiments was conducted on two contrasting field soils, one sand (no cracks) and one silty clay (large cracks). Results give a clear message. On non-cracking soils, solute movement was mostly vertical. On cracking soils, solute in the irrigation water increased as it flowed down the furrow indicating substantial horizontal solute transport.