Abstract
The characterization of soil porosity by micromorphological approach is largely used to evaluate the modification of soil structure induced by the impact of agricultural activity. On the contrary, few studies are addressed to the characterisation of soil porosity to evaluate water movements in soils in spite of the fact that soil hydraulic functions are strongly dependent on the soil porous system. The physical interpretation of one of these functions, the saturated hydraulic conductivity, by soil micromorphological parameters have been studied in a loam soil, representative of the hilly environment of Italy, cultivated to maize.
Besides the confirmation that the continuous conventional tillage induced soil structure degradation in terms of reduction of soil porosity and particularly elongated pores, this paper showed a significant correlation between the elongated continuous transmission pores and the saturated hydraulic conductivity. Results clearly showed that the shape, the size, the orientation and the continuity of pores regulated the flux of the saturated hydraulic conductivity. The micromorphological research also showed that the walls of pores plays an important role on the stability of pores. Formation and existence of the vesicular pores, combined with the orientation of elongated pores parallel to the soil surface is the main factor of the substantial decrease in hydraulic conductivity.
Further research should include all the existing information on pore micromorphology into physically based soil hydraulic functions.
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Pagliai, M., Kutilek, M. (2008). Soil Micromorphology and Soil Hydraulics. In: Kapur, S., Mermut, A., Stoops, G. (eds) New Trends in Soil Micromorphology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-79134-8_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-79134-8_2
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