Browsing by Subject "water retention"

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    Influence of date palm-based biochar and Compost on Water Retention properties of soils with different sand contents
    (MDPI, 2024-02-05) Delgado Iniesta, María José; Le Guyader, Elie; Morvan, Xavier; Miconnet, Vincent; Marin, Béatrice; Moussa, Mohamed; Intrigliolo, Diego S.; Girods, Pierre; Fontana, Sebastien; Sbih, Mahtali; Boumaraf, Belkacem; Tirichine, Aissa; Kavvadias, Victor; Gommeaux, Maxime; Química Agrícola, Geología y Edafología
    Generally, soils of arid and semi-arid regions have low water retention properties due to high sand and low organic carbon contents. This study aimed at quantifying the effect of date palm-based organic amendments (OAs) on the water retention properties of two soils (sandy loam and silty loam), as well as the influence of sand supplementation (0.5–2 mm) on the magnitude of the effect of OAs. Different grain size distributions were obtained by adding sand to natural soils. For this purpose, sand was added to the two soils (1/3 and 2/3) and different soil-OA combinations were tested at a dose of 3% by mass: compost alone, biochar alone and a mixture of biochar and compost (50:50 in mass), in addition to unamended control soils. Soil water contents were measured at nine matric potentials ranging from the saturation to the permanent wilting point. Biochar was more efficient than compost at improving soil water retention. The effect of organic amendments on water retention increased with sand content. In most cases, soil water content values were significantly higher for biochar-amended soils than for unamended or compost-amended soils. The weakness of the effect of compost addition (if alone) was probably due to its properties and notably its high mineral content and electrical conductivity. Soil sand supplementation led to higher differences between the OA-amended soils and unamended soils. Changes in available water capacity reached +26% and +80% in a sandy loamy soil enriched with 2/3 sand and amended with compost and with biochar, respectively, compared to the unamended soil. These results show that sand content (and more generally, soil texture) influences the effect of OA application. Thus, the application of biochar from date palm residues in soil seems to be an effective solution to improve the water retention properties of coarse textured soils and contribute to optimizing the use of water resources in irrigated areas.
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    Relaciones agua-suelo-vegetación.-Influence of land use and soil type in water retention and texture of the soils of Mazarrón (S.E. of Spain)
    Sánchez Navarro, Antonio; Fernández-Delgado Juárez, M.; Gil Vázquez, J.M.; García González, M.; Blanco Bernardeau, M.A.; Universidad de Murcia
    ABSTRACT It is known that some soil properties, such as texture and water retention, are influenced by the kind of soil and the use which is applied to it. Due to this, it has been determined texture and soil pF (1/3 atm and 15 atm) in 41 samples of soil surface (0 - 30 cm.), that were taken according to a distribution of 3x3 Km in the Southwest of the Murcia Region (National Topographic Map 1:50.000 Mazarrón 976). It has been also realized its classification according to Soils International Classification by FAO-ISRIC-IUSS (2006), as well as identifying its actual use in situ. The resulting indicators of pF 1/3 atm. (field capacity), pF 15 atm. (wilting point) and, generated from them, plant available water capacity (PWAC), are quite well related to the kinds of soils, and they might be used as physical quality indicators to evaluate the soils in this area.