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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » National Laboratory for Agriculture and The Environment » Agroecosystems Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #374479
Research Project: Agroecosystem Benefits from the Development and Application of New Management Technologies in Agricultural Watersheds

Location: Agroecosystems Management Research

Title: Water flow patterns in research plots due to soil variability and topography

Author
item Logsdon, Sally
item CAMBARDELLA, CINDY - Retired ARS Employee

Submitted to: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/9/2020
Publication Date: 11/9/2020
Citation: Logsdon, S.D., Cambardella, C.C. 2020. Water flow patterns in research plots due to soil variability and topography. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts. In: Virtual proceedings of ASA-CSSA-SSSA annual meeting, Nov. 9-13, 2020.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Soils may be variable even over short range. This makes it difficult to set blocks for field trials. The purpose of this study is to determine if soil variability contributed to water flow patterns in a trial that compared management systems. Tiles were installed at the center of each plot and between each plot. Existing tile leading out of the plots were broken. Most of the blocks did consist of adjacent plots; however, one block consisted of plots on the exterior, downslope side of the research site. Monitoring wells and neutron access tubes were installed November 2015, and were read monthly during the growing season. Since blocks are fixed effects, they cannot be statistically compared. Numerically the well-drained block had deeper water table depths during dry periods, and the footslope-to-toeslope block had the most shallow water tables. During wet periods, water table depths were similar for all blocks. During dry periods, there was slow lateral flow below the tiles from the upslope block to downslope plots; however, some downslope plots might have still had tile flow. This study showed that subsurface water flow between experimental plots occurred at depths beneath tiles, but that the blocking in the experimental design likely accounted for this source of variability.