Abstract
Purpose
Soils in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are expected to undergo freeze-thaw cycles (FTCs) with higher frequencies and larger amplitudes due to global climate change. Our objective was to ascertain the effect of FTCs on the pore structure of soil aggregates of different diameters during successive FTCs.
Materials and methods
In this study, we measured the effects of FTCs on interior and exterior pore structure of soil aggregates of different diameters (0.25–1 mm, 1–2 mm, 2–3 mm and 3–5 mm) from the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (0–10 cm) through X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanning. The FTC experiment was performed in the laboratory and consisted of 10 FTCs (freezing -10 °C and thawing 20 °C).
Results and discussion
The porosity (> 5 µm) of soil aggregates first decreased and then increased during successive FTCs, and the volumes of soil aggregates increased during successive FTCs. The changes in porosity (FTC0 → FTC3 and FTC0 → FTC5) were significantly positively correlated with the contents of SOC. Small aggregates were less sensitive to successive FTCs and large aggregates (3–5 mm) with low SOC were more sensitive to successive FTCs. FTCs altered the exterior pore size distribution of aggregates, and decreased the exterior microporosity (5–30 μm) and mesoporosity (30–80 μm) and increased the exterior macroporosity (> 80 μm). In contrast, there were no significant differences in the interior porosities of aggregates during successive FTCs.
Conclusions
FTCs affected the pore structure of soil aggregates remarkably, especially 3–5 mm aggregate and the exterior pores of aggregates. The porosity of aggregates increased after frequent FTCs.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Funding
This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant number: 41971053) and the Project Supported by State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (2022-TS-03).
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Zhao, YD., Hu, X. A pore-scale investigation of soil aggregate structure responding to freeze-thaw cycles using X-ray computed microtomography. J Soils Sediments 23, 3137–3148 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-023-03539-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-023-03539-2