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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #124568
Title: QUANTIFYING WHEEL-TRACK EFFECTS ON SOIL HYDRAULIC PROPERTIES FOR AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS MODELING

Author
item Ahuja, Lajpat
item Benjamin, Joseph
item Dunn, Gale
item Ma, Liwang
item Green, Timothy
item PETERSON, G - COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: Soil Dynamics International Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/31/2000
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: We measured soil hydraulic properties on intact soil cores from wheel track and no-wheel track areas of four soil types, after long-term no-till or reduced-till crop rotations in semiarid eastern Colorado. The soil texture varied from sandy loam to silt loam. The results showed a large variability but no consistent differences in water retention curves and hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) between track and no-track areas. However, all water retention and Ksat data could be quantified by essentially universal models that require only soil bulk density and 33-kPa water content. For water retention data from three field soils in the literature where wheel track effects were significant, we present a simple model to derive retention curves for track areas from curves of the no-track areas. This is presented as a topic for further research. The Ksat data for these soils were consistent with the general Ksat-effective porosity relationship pdeveloped previously.

Technical Abstract: We measured soil hydraulic properties on intact soil cores from wheel track and no-wheel track areas of four soil types, after long-term no-till or reduced-till crop rotations in semiarid eastern Colorado. The soil texture varied from sandy loam to silt loam. The results showed a large variability but no consistent differences in water retention curves and hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) between track and no-track areas. However, all water retention and Ksat data could be quantified by essentially universal models that require only soil bulk density and 33-kPa water content. For water retention data from three field soils in the literature where wheel track effects were significant, we present a simple model to derive retention curves for track areas from curves of the no-track areas. This is presented as a topic for further research. The Ksat data for these soils were consistent with the general Ksat-effective porosity relationship pdeveloped previously.