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Experimental study on soluble chemical transfer to surface runoff from soil

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Abstract

Prevention of chemical transfer from soil to surface runoff, under condition of irrigation and subsurface drainage, would improve surface water quality. In this paper, a series of laboratory experiments were conducted to assess the effects of various soil and hydraulic factors on chemical transfer from soil to surface runoff. The factors include maximum depth of ponding water on soil surface, initial volumetric water content of soil, depth of soil with low porosity, type or texture of soil and condition of drainage. In the experiments, two soils, sand and loam, mixed with different quantities of soluble KCl were filled in the sandboxes and prepared under different initial saturated conditions. Simulated rainfall induced surface runoff are operated in the soils, and various ponding water depths on soil surface are simulated. Flow rates and KCl concentration of surface runoff are measured during the experiments. The following conclusions are made from the study results: (1) KCl concentration in surface runoff water would decrease with the increase of the maximum depth of ponding water on soil surface; (2) KCl concentration in surface runoff water would increase with the increase of initial volumetric water content in the soil; (3) smaller depth of soil with less porosity or deeper depth of soil with larger porosity leads to less KCl transfer to surface runoff; (4) the soil with finer texture, such as loam, could keep more fertilizer in soil, which will result in more KCl concentration in surface runoff; and (5) good subsurface drainage condition will increase the infiltration and drainage rates during rainfall event and will decrease KCl concentration in surface runoff. Therefore, it is necessary to reuse drained fertile water effectively during rainfall, without polluting groundwater. These study results should be considered in agriculture management to reduce soluble chemical transfer from soil to surface runoff for reducing non-point sources pollution.

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Acknowledgments

This work is partly supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2652015116, 2016YXZD046), the National Nature Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51209187, 41530316, 91125024, 51309106), the Beijing Higher Education Young Elite Teacher Project (Grant No. YETP0653), the Science and Technology support program of Wuhan City (2015020202010127), and the National Science and Technology support program of China (2015BAB07B00).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Groundwater Cycle and Environment Evolution (China University of Geosciences), Ministry of Education, Beijing, 100083, People’s Republic of China

    Juxiu Tong & Bill X. Hu

  2. School of Water Resources and Environment, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, 100083, People’s Republic of China

    Juxiu Tong & Bill X. Hu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, People’s Republic of China

    Jinzhong Yang

  4. School of Hydropower and Information Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, People’s Republic of China

    Huaiwei Sun

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  1. Juxiu Tong
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Correspondence to Huaiwei Sun.

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Responsible editor: Zhihong Xu

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Tong, J., Yang, J., Hu, B.X. et al. Experimental study on soluble chemical transfer to surface runoff from soil. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 20378–20387 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7248-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7248-2

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