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Spatial Variability of Water Fluxes in Soil: A Field Study

Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Texas A&M Univ., College Station, TX 77843-2474

*Corresponding author (k-mcinnes{at}tamu.edu).

ABSTRACT

Knowledge of spatial variability of soil properties is important for soil sampling and modeling water and solute transport through soil. A field study was conducted on a Silawa-variant loamy fine sand (fine, mixed, thermic Udic Paleustalf) in Brazos County, Texas, to evaluate spatial variability and convergence and divergence of water fluxes through the soil profile. A 7 by 14 grid of interception cells (each 25 by 25 mm) was built to collect surface-applied water at 0.3-, 0.9-, and 1.2-m depth. The interception cells were installed on the ceilings of tunnels that had been hand dug horizontally into the walls of a large backhoe-dug pit. Water was applied under a positive head of 50 mm in a 1.2 by 1.2 m infiltration square. Normal and lognormal probability functions were fitted to frequency distributions of intercepted fluxes from topsoil and subsoil, respectively, with correlation coefficients of 0.95 and higher. Most nonmatrix flow was found at 0.9 m in the Bt2 horizon. We speculate that fluxes were most heterogeneous in this horizon because of associated soil texture and structure. Compared with soil at 0.3 and 1.2 m, texture was finer, peds were larger, and clay films were more abundant at 0.9 m. This relationship with pedologic development suggests that descriptions of texture and structure might be used to predict spatial distributions of fluxes and design sampling schemes. Convergence of water flowpaths was observed from 0.3 to 0.9 m while divergence occurred from 0.9 to 1.2 m.

Research conducted by the Texas Agric. Exp. Stn., the Texas A&M Univ. System. Support for this research was from USGS Grants 14-08-001-G1592 and 14-08-001-G2048 through the Texas Water Resources Institute and from USDA-CSRS Grants 93-37102-9019 and 93-34214-8902.

Received for publication March 20, 1996.

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