Abstract
Erosion of the productive surface soil from a landscape reduces crop production and alters chemical and physical properties of the soil, especially the thickness of the effective rooting depth and surface horizon thickness. Fast and reliable tools are needed to detect and map the thickness of soil horizons of eroded landscapes to allow for proper management of eroded soil for optimum agricultural production and environmental protection. A truck-mounted, constant-rate profile cone penetrometer was used to determine the horizon thickness and thus map the distribution of various erosion levels of an eroded Dubuque silt loam soil, in southwest Wisconsin, USA. The penetrometer was pushed into the ground with the hydraulic cylinder of a soil probe mounted on a 0.7 ton truck, to a depth of approximately 1.3 m. Data were collected continuously with a datalogger connected to a load cell and a string potentiometer depth gage. The 30° tip of the penetrometer was constructed following the American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE) guidelines. Data collected with the penetrometer correlate well with previously constructed maps of soil erosion distribution for the study site constructed by soil borings using morphological observations, where depth to clay residuum (2Bt2 horizon) was used to determine erosion severity. Depth to clay residuum averaged 0.95, 0.74, and 0.45 m for the slight, moderate, and severe erosion levels, respectively. Of the total study area, approximately 44, 31, and 25 % consisted of slight, moderate, and severe erosion levels, respectively. Three-dimensional (3D) maps of the site were developed using data from the penetrometer. Development of limited invasive tools and methods for mapping eroded soil can aid in land management.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE) Standards (1999) Soil cone penetrometer. In: Agricultural engineering yearbook. ASAE Standard: ASAE 313.3, American Society Agricultural Engineering, St. Joseph, MI, Feb 99, pp 832–833
Andraski BJ, Lowery B (1992) Erosion effects on soil water storage, plant water uptake and corn growth. Soil Sci Soc Am J 56:1911–1919
Arriaga FJ, Lowery B (2005) Spatial distribution of carbon over an eroded landscape in southwest Wisconsin. Soil Tillage Res 81(2):155–162
Clark RL (1999) Evaluation of the potential to develop soil strength maps using a cone penetrometer. In: ASAE Annual International Meeting, Paper, no. 99-3109, ASAE St. Joseph, MI, pp 49085–49659
Figueiredo F, Cunha RP, Conciani W (2013) An overview on existing dynamic cone penetration test research related to the Central Area of Brazil. In: Coutinho RQ, Mayne PW (eds) Geotechnical and geophysical site characterization. Taylor and Francis Group, London, pp 1669–1675. ISBN 978-0-415-62136-6
Farooq YE, Duggal AK, Farooq A (2015) Case study on correlation between California bearing ration (CBR) and dynamic cone penetration test (DCPT). Int J Civil Struct Eng Res 3:39–41
Grunwald S, Barak P, McSweeney K, Lowery B (2000) Soil landscape models at different scales portrayed in virtual reality modeling language (VRML). Soil Sci 165:598–615
Grunwald S, Rooney DJ, McSweeney K, Lowery B (2001a) Development of pedotransfer functions for a profile cone penetrometer. Geoderma 100:25–47
Grunwald S, Lowery B, Rooney DJ, McSweeney K (2001b) Profile cone penetrometer data used to distinguish between soil materials. Soil Tillage Res 62:27–40
Massarsch KR (2014) Cone penetration testing—a historic perspective. In: Robertson PK, Cabal KL (eds) Proceedings 3rd international symposium on cone penetration testing. Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 13–14 May 2014, pp. 97–134
Mirreh HF, Ketcheson JW (1972) Influence of bulk density and matric pressure to soil resistance to penetration. Can J Soil Sci 52:477–483
Raper RL, Sharma AK (2004) Soil moisture effects on energy requirements and soil disruption of subsoiling a coastal plain soil. Trans ASAE 47(6):1899–1905
Raper RL, Washington BH, Jarrell JD (1999) A tractor-mounted multiple-probe soil cone penetrometer. Appl Eng Agric 15(4):287–290
Rooney D, Lowery B (2000) A profile cone penetrometer for mapping soil horizons. Soil Sci Soc Am J 64:2136–2139
Sun Y, Schulze Lammers P, Ma D (2004) Evaluation of a combined penetrometer for simultaneous measurement of penetration resistance and soil water content. J Plant Nutr Soil Sci 167(6):745–751
Taylor HM, Gardner HR (1963) Penetration of cotton seedling taproots as influenced by bulk density, moisture content, and strength of soil. Soil Sci 96:153–156
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Arriaga, F.J., Lowery, B., Reinert, D.J., McSweeney, K. (2016). Cone Penetrometers as a Tool for Distinguishing Soil Profiles and Mapping Soil Erosion. In: Hartemink, A., Minasny, B. (eds) Digital Soil Morphometrics. Progress in Soil Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28295-4_25
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28295-4_25
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28294-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28295-4
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)