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Diurnal soil water dynamics in the shallow vadose zone (field site of China University of Geosciences, China)

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Environmental Geology

Abstract

Because of the relatively low soil moisture in arid or semi-arid regions, water vapour movement often predominates in the vadose zone and affects the partitioning of energy among various land surface fluxes. In an outdoor sand bunker experiment, the soil water content at 10 and 30 cm depth were measured at hourly intervals for 2.5 days during October 2004. It was found that the soil moisture reached the daily maximum value (5.9–6.1% at 10 cm and 11.9–13.1% at 30 cm) and minimum value (4.4–4.5% at 10 cm and 10.4–10.8% at 30 cm) at midday (0–1 p.m. for 10 cm and 2–3 p.m. for 30 cm) and before dawn (2–3 a.m. for 10 cm and 4–5 a.m. for 30 cm), respectively. The modified HYDRUS-1D code, which refers to the coupled water, water vapour and heat transport in soil, was used to simulate the moisture and water vapour flow in the soil. The numerical analyses provided insight into the diurnal movement of liquid water and water vapour driven by the gradients of pressure heads and temperatures in the subsurface zone. The simulated temperature and water content were in good agreement with the measured values. The spatial–temporal distribution of liquid water flux, water vapour flux and soil temperature showed a detailed diurnal pattern of soil water dynamics in relatively coarse sand.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Water Resources and Environment, China University of Geosciences, 100083, Beijing, China

    Yijian Zeng, Li Wan, Kangle Huang & Xusheng Wang

  2. International Institute for Geo-information Science and Earth Observation, 7500 AA, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Yijian Zeng & Zhongbo Su

  3. Institute of Symbiotic Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Agriculture & Technology, Fuchu, Tokyo, 183-8509, Japan

    Hirotaka Saito

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  1. Yijian Zeng
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  2. Li Wan
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  3. Zhongbo Su
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  4. Hirotaka Saito
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  5. Kangle Huang
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  6. Xusheng Wang
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Correspondence to Yijian Zeng.

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Zeng, Y., Wan, L., Su, Z. et al. Diurnal soil water dynamics in the shallow vadose zone (field site of China University of Geosciences, China). Environ Geol 58, 11–23 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-008-1485-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-008-1485-8

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