Skip to main content
ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #82906

Title: VARIABLE WATER CONTENT AND SOLUTE TRANSPORT MEASURED BY TDR

Author
item SHEN, FULIN - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
item SWAN, JAMES - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
item Jaynes, Dan
item HORTON, ROBERT - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: Agronomy Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/31/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Simultaneous time domain reflectometry (TDR) measurements of soil water content and bulk soil electrical conductivity on similar soil volumes have been used to determine solute breakthrough curves (BTC). Unsaturated steady flow conditions on undisturbed soil columns and transient flow conditions on repacked soil columns were studied. In this paper, measurements of TDR and effluent BTC are compared under transient unsaturated flow conditions on undisturbed soil columns of a silt loam soil containing macropores. Methods used to obtain the relationship between TDR and bulk soil electrical conductivity and soil resident solute concentration are evaluated. The effect of average pore velocity on BTC determined by TDR and effluent measurements will be shown. Implications on use of TDR to measure BTC on structured soil will be discussed.