SW—Soil and Water: Soil Macroporosity Distribution and Trends in a No-till Plot using a Volume Computer Tomography Scanner
✍ Scribed by S.N. Asare; R.P. Rudra; W.T. Dickinson; A. Fenster
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2001
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 324 KB
- Volume
- 78
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0021-8634
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✦ Synopsis
Soil macroporosity (voids with a diameter of 0)54 mm or more) was estimated in undisturbed soil columns obtained from eight 1 m by 1 m plots of a no-till "eld using image analysis, the soil samples having been scanned with a laboratory volume computer tomography (CT) scanner. Estimates of soil macroporosities in the A horizon, the B horizon and the entire "eld were found to be log-normally distributed. For the entire depth under consideration (0}400 mm), and the A horizon (0}200 mm), there was a signi"cant decreasing trend in the soil macroporosity with depth. In the B horizon, the soil macroporosity showed neither a decreasing or increasing trend with depth. Using the Kolmogorov}Smirnov two-sample test, it was observed that both the physical and mechanical processes creating the soil macropores in the A and B horizons were completely di!erent or if they were the same then the extent of the physical and mechanical processes involved in soil macropore formation were completely di!erent e.g. the number of earthworms present in each horizon based on the availability of residue which acts as food and the number and type of plants roots available at each horizon.