Water retention and hydraulic conductivity are influenced by soil structure at relatively high water content. Cultivation and compaction make the soil structure change, therefore, water retention and hydraulic conductivity are considerably affected by them.
Authors compared the hydraulic properties for several undisturbed soils and sieved soils and discussed the influence of soil structure on water retention and hydraulic conductivity. Sieved soils were made by sieving at 2.0 or 0.84mm and compacted under the condition of field density, then, these samples were in a homogeneous state.
Experimental restlts are given as follows:
1. As undisturbed soils have large pores, hydraulic conductivity at saturation is higher than that of sieved soils, but by increasing the sucking pressure, the hydraulic conductivity of undisturbed soils decreases rapidly. Therefore, in an unsaturated state, sieved soils retain more water and higher hydraulic conductivity than the undisturbed soils in the same suction. This is reason for the homogeneity of samples. Generally speaking, the above tendency is remarkable for soils with strongly developed structure.
2. Difference of hydraulic conductivity between cultivated soil and sieved soil is large near saturation, but the unsaturated flow characteristic of cultivated soil resembles that of sieved soil rather than undisturbed aggregated soil. This means that the cultivation produces large and small pores instaneously.
3. By comparison of water retention and hydraulic condudtivity among three soils, the first is the soil passing a few days after cultivation, the second is the soil passing eight months after cultivation, and the third is sieved soil, which made clear that the bulk density of the second soil is larger than the first one, and the water retention and hydraulic conductivity of the second soil resemble the third one rather than the first one. This result means that the duration after cultivation makes soil homogeneous.
4. It is possible to approximate the unsaturated flow property of undisturbed soils by making change the particle size of sieved soil. Then, it is thought that water movement occurs between millimetersized peds at relatively high water content.
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