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Soil Physics

Influence of Organic Matter on the Estimation of Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity

^a USDA-ARS, Hydrology and Remote Sensing Lab., 10300 Baltimore Ave., Bldg. 007, BARC-West, Beltsville, MD 20705
^b USDA-ARS, Environmental Microbial Safety Lab., Powder Mill Road, Bldg. 173, BARC-East, Beltsville, MD 20705

^* Corresponding author (anemes{at}hydrolab.arsusda.gov)

Estimation of soil hydraulic properties by pedotransfer functions (PTFs) can be used in many applications. Some of existing PTFs estimate saturated hydraulic conductivity (K_s) of the soil, using organic matter (OM) content as one of the input variables. Several authors have shown an increase in K_s with increasing OM content, a soil property that presumably improves soil structure. We used three popular PTFs to examine the relationship between OM content and K_s. We also used data originating from the U.S., Hungary, and the European HYPRES database, to develop additional PTFs with the Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH). It appears that existing PTFs negatively correlate K_s with OM content for some soils. We found indications of negative relationship between OM content and K_s with the newly developed PTFs both for directly estimated K_s, and for K_s estimated via the effective porosity of the soil, using a generalized Kozeny–Carman approach. It is not straightforward to define the exact range of soils with the inverse relationship between OM and K_s. The range appeared to be data set dependent, but it was extensive within the valid input range of each PTF.

Abbreviations: CPM, complexity penalty multiplier • D_b, bulk density • GMDH, Group Method of Data Handling • K_s, saturated hydraulic conductivity • OM, organic matter • PTF, pedotransfer function • , total porosity • _e, effective porosity • ₃₃, water content at –33 kPa matric potential

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