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Nondestructive Determination of Hydrogeometrical Characteristics of Soil Macropores

Department of Soil Science, 1525 Observatory Drive, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706-1299

*Corresponding author.

ABSTRACT

Hydrological and geometrical parameters of macropores are essential for modeling water and solute transport through soils containing macropores. This study was conducted to develop a fast and nondestructive technique for determining the hydrological and geometrical characteristics of soil macropores. We measured the rate of water flowing into ant and earthworm burrows with a macropore infiltrometer and estimated burrow diameter, volume, and depth from the measured flow rate and a water flow model. To evaluate the estimated burrow parameters, we made castings of the ant and earthworm burrows with a dental plaster. The burrows had similar diameters (2.1 mm for laminar flow; 2.9 mm for turbulent flow) but different volumes and depths (281-cm³ volume and 0.60-m depth for ant burrows; 210-cm³ volume and 0.82-m depth for earthworm burrows). This technique is reasonable for ant burrows because the root mean square difference (RMSD) between casting and infiltrometer-calculated volumes is 17%; however, errors are larger for earthworm burrows (RMSD is 73%). Saturated soil matrix hydraulic conductivity (K_s) estimated from the infiltrometer measurement of earthworm burrows were comparable to matrix K_s of the bulk silt loam. The matrix K_s values estimated for ant burrows were about eight times smaller than matrix K_s of the bulk sandy soil. Such large decrease in K_s is probably caused by infilling of burrow walls by ants with fine materials. Combining the macropore infiltrometer measurements with the model is a useful means of estimating the hydrological and geometrical parameters of ant and possibly earthworm burrows.

Research supported by USDA-CSRS.

Received for publication February 17, 1993.

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