IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v9y2019i6p133-d242714.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of Soil Amendments on the Hydraulic Conductivity of Boreal Agricultural Podzols

Author

Listed:
  • Dinushika Wanniarachchi

    (School of Science and the Environment, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Corner Brook, NL A2H 5G4, Canada)

  • Mumtaz Cheema

    (School of Science and the Environment, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Corner Brook, NL A2H 5G4, Canada)

  • Raymond Thomas

    (School of Science and the Environment, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Corner Brook, NL A2H 5G4, Canada)

  • Vanessa Kavanagh

    (Department of Fisheries and Land Resources, Government of Newfoundland, Pasadena, NL A0L 1K0, Canada)

  • Lakshman Galagedara

    (School of Science and the Environment, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Corner Brook, NL A2H 5G4, Canada)

Abstract

Hydraulic properties of soil are the basis for understanding the flow and transport through the vadose zone. It has been demonstrated that different soil amendments can alter the soil properties affecting soil hydrology. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of soil amendments on hydraulic conductivity (K) of a loamy sand podzolic soil under both unsaturated (K unsat ) and near-saturated (near K sat ) conditions in an agricultural setting. A field experiment was conducted with two common soil amendments: Dairy manure (DM) in 2016 and 2017 and biochar (BC) once only in 2016. DM and BC were incorporated up to a depth of 0.15–0.20 m at a rate of 30,000 L ha −1 and 20 Mg ha −1 , respectively. A randomized complete block experimental design was used and the plots planted with silage corn ( Zea mays L.) without irrigation. The treatments were: Control without amendment (0N), inorganic N fertilizer (IN), two types of DM (IN+DM1 and IN+DM2), and two treatments with BC (IN+BC and IN+DM1+BC). Infiltration data were collected using a mini disk infiltrometer under three tension levels in which −0.04 and −0.02 m was ascribed as unsaturated (at the wet end) and −0.001 m as near-saturated condition. Based on the measured infiltration rates, K unsat and near K sat hydraulic conductivities were calculated. There were no significant effects of DM and BC on bulk density and near K sat . Treatments IN+DM1, IN+DM2, and IN+DM1+BC significantly reduced the K unsat compared to the control. Since these soil amendments can influence soil hydrology such as reduced infiltration and increased surface runoff, carefully monitored application of soil amendments is recommended.

Suggested Citation

  • Dinushika Wanniarachchi & Mumtaz Cheema & Raymond Thomas & Vanessa Kavanagh & Lakshman Galagedara, 2019. "Impact of Soil Amendments on the Hydraulic Conductivity of Boreal Agricultural Podzols," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-12, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:9:y:2019:i:6:p:133-:d:242714
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/9/6/133/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/9/6/133/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cherobim, Verediana Fernanda & Favaretto, Nerilde & de Freitas Melo, Vander & Barth, Gabriel & Huang, Chi-Hua, 2018. "Soil surface sealing by liquid dairy manure affects saturated hydraulic conductivity of Brazilian Oxisols," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 193-196.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nikolay Gorbach & Viktor Startsev & Anton Mazur & Evgeniy Milanovskiy & Anatoly Prokushkin & Alexey Dymov, 2022. "Simulation of Smoldering Combustion of Organic Horizons at Pine and Spruce Boreal Forests with Lab-Heating Experiments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-20, December.
    2. Ratnajit Saha & Lakshman Galagedara & Raymond Thomas & Muhammad Nadeem & Kelly Hawboldt, 2020. "Investigating the Influence of Biochar Amendment on the Physicochemical Properties of Podzolic Soil," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-29, October.
    3. Anastasia Angelaki & Alkiviadis Dionysidis & Parveen Sihag & Evangelia E. Golia, 2022. "Assessment of Contamination Management Caused by Copper and Zinc Cations Leaching and Their Impact on the Hydraulic Properties of a Sandy and a Loamy Clay Soil," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-19, February.
    4. Marli Vermooten & Muhammad Nadeem & Mumtaz Cheema & Raymond Thomas & Lakshman Galagedara, 2019. "Temporal Effects of Biochar and Dairy Manure on Physicochemical Properties of Podzol: Case from a Silage-Corn Production Trial in Boreal Climate," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-14, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cherobim, Verediana Fernanda & Favaretto, Nerilde & Melo, Vander de Freitas & Rumbelsperger, Anelize Manuela Bahniuk & Huang, Chi-Hua, 2019. "Soil surface sealing by liquid dairy manure as analysed by X-ray computed tomography," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 742-748.
    2. Zanon, Jair Augusto & Favaretto, Nerilde & Democh Goularte, Gabriel & Dieckow, Jeferson & Barth, Gabriel, 2020. "Manure application at long-term in no-till: Effects on runoff, sediment and nutrients losses in high rainfall events," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:9:y:2019:i:6:p:133-:d:242714. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.