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Water availability in different soils in relation to hydrogel application

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Title Water availability in different soils in relation to hydrogel application
Not Available
 
Creator Bhaskar Narjary
Pramila Aggarwal
Anupama Singh
Debashis Chakraborty
Ravender Singh
 
Subject Hydrogel
Hydraulic properties
Soil water characteristics
 
Description A study was conducted on PVC columns in the laboratory to investigate the effect of the application of hydrogel
in modifying the hydraulic properties of different soil types. The main treatments consisted of four different
soil types, namely sand, alluvial sandy loam, red sandy loam and black clay. The sub-treatments consisted
of three levels of gel application: 0.7%, 0.5% and 0% (by weight). A given level of gel was mixed in the top
10 cm-layer of soil. In all soil columns, 5 cm of water was applied, and soil samples were taken with a core
auger on the fourth, seventh, 14th and 22nd days after watering (DAW). The undisturbed soil of the rings
of the core assembly was used for preparing the soil water retention curve, and the soil of the core was
used for determining saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks), bulk density and gravimetric soil water content.
The results of measuring soil water content (SWC) during drying revealed that in sand treated with a 0.7% gel
application, the water release rates were relatively uniform throughout the entire drying period, whereas in
black clay, water release rates were very high initially (4–7 DAW) but fell appreciably afterwards (less than
0.5% per day).
The result of the soil water characteristic curve revealed that water release per unit suction change in the
0–10 kPa range (unavailable to plants) in soil samples not treated with gel was higher compared to soil samples
treated with gel, except in alluvial soil, for which rates were similar. However, the water release per unit
suction change in the 10–100 kPa range (available to plants) in soil samples not treated with gel was significantly
lower compared to that in soil samples treated with gel for all soil types.
The above results suggest that gel significantly improved the readily available water capacity (RAWC) of the
soils. Furthermore, the exceptionally low value of the water released per unit suction change pattern in all
soil types for soil water suction of >100 kPa indicated that 100 kPa can be considered the critical limit of
soil water potential from the water availability standpoint. The efficacy of the gel in improving RAWC was
confirmed by the increased midpoint moisture (MPM), reduced median pore diameter (dm) and moisture release
index (Im).
The time at which a critical SWC (SWC corresponding to 100 kPa) was reached was studied in order to further
examine the suitability of gel in improving soil water retention in different soil types. The drying pattern
of soils highlighted that under low evaporative condition, the critical SWC with the 0.7% gel treatment
reached approximately 7, 14, 22 and 4 DAW in red sandy loam, alluvial sandy loam, sand and black clay
soils, respectively. The above-mentioned results thus reaffirmed the suitability of gel for sandy soil because
it improved the water availability of the sandy soil for a longer period (nearly 22 days, which corresponds
to the irrigation interval of most agricultural crops), while gel was found unsuitable for black soil, in which
the critical soil water content was reached early (4–7 days).
ICAR-IARI
 
Date 2019-11-27T09:02:17Z
2019-11-27T09:02:17Z
2012-01-01
 
Type Research Paper
 
Identifier XVIII. Narjary, B., Aggarwal, P., Singh, A., Chakraborty, D., and Singh, R. 2012. Water availability in different soils in relation to hydrogel application. Geoderma, 187–188: 94–101
Not Available
http://krishi.icar.gov.in/jspui/handle/123456789/25613
 
Language English
 
Relation Not Available;
 
Publisher Elsevier