Die Bodenkultur - Journal for Land Management, Food and Environment

H. S. Öztürk and I. Özkan:

Solute Movement in large Soil Columns under different Water Flow Velocities

Summary

Solute transport during ponding infiltration was investigated in large soil columns. In order to create slow and fast water flow velocities, 3 cm and 6 cm of water were ponded constantly during the leaching on the surface of a sandy clay loam (SCL) and a clay loam (CL) soil column. Although the amount of water used in the 3 cm water applications for both soils was lower than in the case of the 6 cm water applications, more time was necessary to lower the electrical conductivity (EC) of soils to a specific level in the 3 cm applications. The EC of effluent initially increased from 11.9 dS m-1 to 39.6 dS m-1 and later began first to reduce to 6.2 dS m-1 by 16 cm of water, and then to 2 dS m-1 by 11.2 cm of water for the CL soil. Slow changes in the concentrations of Ca+2, and Mg+2 through the end of the leaching were assessed especially in the CL soil. K+1 and Cl-1 leached easily in both water application rates, and Na+movement was moderate but steady until the end of leaching events. Boron concentration was not reduced to the specific desired level in all experiments by three leaching events. However, in a fourth leaching event the boron concentration was lowered from 4.8-4.5 to 1.1-1.0 mg kg-1. Experimental results showed that the different water flow velocities had no effect on the boron transport. Key words: Solute transport, intermittent ponding, water flow velocity, ion movement.