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Title: EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT REPRESENTATIONS OF THE PARTICLE-SIZE DISTRIBUTION TO PREDICT SOIL WATER RETENTION

Author
item NEMES, ATTILA - VISITING SCIENTIST
item RAWLS, WALTER
item Pachepsky, Yakov

Submitted to: Agronomy Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/2/2004
Publication Date: 11/2/2004
Citation: Nemes, A., Rawls, W.J., Pachepsky, Y.A. 2004. Evaluation of different representations of the particle-size distribution to predict soil water retention [abstract]. Agronomy Abstracts. 2004 CDROM.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Detailed particle-size distribution data or parameters derived from it are used in almost all pedotransfer functions (PTFs) to estimate soil hydraulic properties. Most commonly, the particle-size distribution (PSD) is represented by the sand, silt and clay content of a soil. However, a number of standards exist and are in use internationally to describe PSD and particle-size classes. Additionally, some authors use derived particle-size information, such as the geometric mean diameter and its standard deviation as input to their predictive equations. We compared the usefulness of some of the most common representations of the PSD in estimating water retention at '10 kPa, '33 kPa and '1500 kPa and the available water content (AWC) - which is defined as the difference between water contents at '33 kPa and '1500 kPa matric potentials - of the soil, using Group Method of Data Handling and data of three databases.