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Infiltration Rate as Affected by Soil Freezing Under Three Cover Types¹

ABSTRACT

Infiltration rate in a frozen Fayette silt loam soil under contiguous areas of natural deciduous forest, 25-year-old confierous plantation, and 6-year-old abandoned field vegetation was measured over the winter of 1969-70 using tin can infiltrometers and a water-ethylene glycol solution. The deciduous forest site had a natural soil profile; the conifer plantation and abandoned field sites were once cultivated. Prefreeze infiltration rate was similar for all cover conditions. In deciduous forest and abandoned field plots, soil freezing did not change the infiltration rate sharply until late winter when infiltrating snowmelt and rainfall froze and closed soil pores. In the conifer plantation, the infiltration rate was nearly zero in early winter due to an impermeable snow-ice layer on the ground caused by snowmelt dripping from the conifer canopy. Because of large macropores, infiltration rates were high on the deciduous forest and abandoned field plots even when the frozen soil contained nearly 50% water by volume. Conifer plantations may thus contribute more surface run-off than deciduous forest or abandoned fields during snowmelt and winter rains.

¹ Contribution from North Central Forest Exp. Sta., USDA Forest Service, St. Paul, Minn. 55101. Taken in part from Ph.D. thesis of author, 1972, University of Minnesota. Presented before Div. S-7, SSSA, August 26, 1970 at Tucson, Arizona.

² Soil Scientist, N.C. Forest Exp. Sta., USDA Forest Service, Forest Watershed Lab., La Crosse, Wis.

Received for publication November 5, 1971. Accepted for publication February 28, 1972.