Hydraulic conductivity and pore connectivity. Effects of conventional and no-till systems determined using a simple laboratory device

SORACCO C.G.; VILLARREAL, RAFAEL; MELANI, E.; ODERIZ, JUAN AGUSTÍN; SALAZAR, M.P.; IRIZAR, A.; LOZANO, LUIS ALBERTO

GEODERMA

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2019 vol. 337 p. 1236 - 1244

0016-7061

Soil hydraulic conductivity is a property that describes how easily water can move through a porous space and itsdetermination is important because it controls many soil hydrological processes. The objectives of this work were: i- toassess the suitability of lab tension mini-infiltrometry to measure hydraulic conductivity, by comparing with field tensiondisc infiltrometer data; and ii-to assess the effect of different tillage practices on hydraulic conductivity values and porenetwork in three different soils from Argentinean Pampas Region. Additionally, three analytical approaches to obtain Kfrom mini-infiltrometry data were compared. Field infiltration with tension disc infiltrometer (TI) and laboratory infiltrationwith a proposed mini-infiltrometer (MI) were conducted in three different textured soils of Argentinian Pampas Region(loam, silty loam and sandy loam) in long-term experiments under no-tillage (NT) and conventional tillage (CT).Hydraulic conductivity (K) at different tensions (h) (6, 3 and 0 cm), namely K6, K3 and K0, and soil pore connectivitywere estimated. There was no significant difference between K (h) values obtained from TI and MI, ranging between0.47 and 2.36 cm h-1 and 0.52 and 1.77 and cm h-1, respectively. We concluded that NT reduces soil hydraulicconductivity, affecting soil pore connectivity, especially in fine textured soils. CT showed higher total pore connectivityin all studied sites. The proposed laboratory mini-infiltrometry method allows determining soil hydraulic conductivityfunction and pore connectivity in a simple, fast and inexpensive way.