Soil surface roughness as influenced by selected soil physical properties

Lehrsch, G.A. and Whisler, F.D. and Römkens, M. J. M. (1987) Soil surface roughness as influenced by selected soil physical properties. Soil & Tillage Research. 10:197-212.

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Abstract

Soil surface roughness affects infiltration, the storage of water in depressions on the soil surface,
runoff and other processes. Roughness of soil after tillage or cultivation is affected by soil factors
such as soil type, soil aggregation, water content and others. Specific soil properties that determine
a soil's physical reaction to tillage should be identified, so that mechanistic relationships between
those properties and the resultant roughness can be developed. The objective of this study was to
determine relationships between soil surface roughness, measured using an MIF parameter (the
product of a microrelief index and peak frequency), and water content, bulk density, soil texture,
wet and dry aggregate size distributions, aggregate stability, organic matter content and other soil
properties, measured after each of 3 cultivations throughout a growing season. During the summer
of 1984, soil physical properties at depths of 10.8 and 30.5 cm were measured prior to primary
tillage, and at the surface immediately before 3 cultivations of soya beans, Glycine max (L.) Merr.
An automated, non-contact profiler measured surface profiles along transects, 5 cm apart, of 1 x 1
m plots after each cultivation. With water content and dry bulk density at the soil surface ranging
from 0.06 to 0.21 kg kg-1 and from 1.05 to 1.26 Mg m-3 , respectively, roughness, as the common
logarithm of MIF, ranged from -0.758 to -0.788. Dry and wet bulk density were found to account
for 64 and 52% of the variation in the MIF parameter, respectively. Water content at cultivation,
and at -33 kPa, accounted for 21 and 22%, respectively, of the variation in surface roughness.

Item Type:	Article
NWISRL Publication Number:	0643
Subjects:	Soil Mass Import - autoclassified (may be erroneous)
Depositing User:	Users 6 not found.
Date Deposited:	20 Nov 2010 21:53
Last Modified:	06 Jan 2017 21:34
Item ID:	491
URI:	https://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/id/eprint/491