A methodological framework to determine optimum durations for the construction of soil water characteristic curves using centrifugation
Author
Vero, Sara E.Healy, Mark G.
Henry, Tiernan
Creamer, Rachel E.
Ibrahim, Tristan G.
Forrestal, Patrick J.
Richards, Karl G.
Fenton, Owen
Date
30/12/2016
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Vero, S., Healy, M., Henry, T., et al. (2016). A methodological framework to determine optimum durations for the construction of soil water characteristic curves using centrifugation. Irish Journal of Agricultural and Food Research, 55(2), pp. 91-99, doi:10.1515/ijafr-2016-0009Abstract
During laboratory assessment of the soil water characteristic curve (SWCC), determining equilibrium at various pressures is challenging. This study establishes a methodological framework to identify appropriate experimental duration at each pressure step for the construction of SWCCs via centrifugation. Three common temporal approaches to equilibrium – 24-, 48- and 72-h – are examined, for a grassland and arable soil. The framework highlights the differences in equilibrium duration between the two soils. For both soils, the 24-h treatment significantly overestimated saturation. For the arable site, no significant difference was observed between the 48- and 72-h treatments. Hence, a 48-h treatment was sufficient to determine ‘effective equilibrium’. For the grassland site, the 48- and 72-h treatments differed significantly. This highlights that a more prolonged duration is necessary for some soils to conclusively determine that effective equilibrium has been reached. This framework can be applied to other soils to determine the optimum centrifuge durations for SWCC construction.Funder
Teagasc Walsh Fellowship Programmeae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
https://doi.org/10.1515/ijafr-2016-0009