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A new method for estimating soil water repellency index

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Abstract

The soil water repellency index, R, is calculated from the ethanol sorptivity, Se, and water sorptivity, Sw, using an equation: R = 1.95 Se/Sw. In the older method, Se and Sw were measured in pairwise arrangements to reduce the influence of spatial heterogeneity of soil properties, and one value of R only was calculated from one pair of Se and Sw measurements. The new method to estimate R takes into account all the measured values of water and ethanol sorptivity, i.e., m × n values of R are to be calculated from m values of Sw and n values of Se. The results of the t-test revealed that there is not a statistically significant difference between the means of both samples at the 95.0% confidence level for all four studied soils. It was found using the F-test that there is not a statistically significant difference between the variances of samples estimated by the older and new methods at the 95.0% confidence level for all but one (grassland soil) studied soils. Comparison of R values taken in sandy soil under different vegetation cover in Sekule, southwest Slovakia, revealed that the average values of R estimated using the new method increased with vegetation succession, i.e., Pure sand < Glade soil < Grassland soil < Pine-forest soil, while the mean values of R estimated using the older method changed in the order: Pure sand < Grassland soil < Glade soil < Pine-forest soil. It seems that an increase in the number of R values processed can result in the more reliable mean values of R at the sites with high spatial heterogeneity of soil properties.

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Acknowledgements

This contribution was supported by the Scientific Grant Agency VEGA Projects No. 2/0054/14 and 2/0009/15. This publication is the result of the project implementation ITMS 26240120004 Centre of excellence for integrated flood protection of land supported by the Research & Development Operational Programme funded by the ERDF.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Hydrology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Račianska 75, SK-83102, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Pavla Pekárová & Ľubomír Lichner

  2. Faculty of Mathematics, Physics, and Informatics, Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Comenius University, Mlynská dolina, SK-84248, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Ján Pekár

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  1. Pavla Pekárová
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  2. Ján Pekár
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  3. Ľubomír Lichner
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Correspondence to Pavla Pekárová.

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Pekárová, P., Pekár, J. & Lichner, Ľ. A new method for estimating soil water repellency index. Biologia 70, 1450–1455 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1515/biolog-2015-0178

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