Kinetic models of diagenesis in disturbed sediments Part 2. Nitrogen diagenesis

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A simple three-dimensional macroscopic root water uptake model based on the hydraulic architecture approach

Many hydrological models including root water uptake (RWU) do not consider the dimension of root system hydraulic architecture (HA) because explicitly solving water flow in such a complex system is too time consuming. However, they might lack process understanding when basing RWU and plant water stress predictions on functions of variables such as the root length density distribution. On the basis of analytical solutions of water flow in a simple HA, we developed an "implicit" model of the root system HA for simulation of RWU distribution (sink term of Richards' equation) and plant water stress in three-dimensional soil water flow models. The new model has three macroscopic parameters defined at the soil element scale, or at the plant scale, rather than for each segment of the root system architecture: the standard sink fraction distribution <b><i>SSF</i></b>, the root system equivalent conductance <i>K</i><sub>rs</sub> and the compensatory RWU conductance <i>K</i><sub>comp</sub>. It clearly decouples the process of water stress from compensatory RWU, and its structure is appropriate for hydraulic lift simulation. As compared to a model explicitly solving water flow in a realistic maize root system HA, the implicit model showed to be accurate for predicting RWU distribution and plant collar water potential, with one single set of parameters, in dissimilar water dynamics scenarios. For these scenarios, the computing time of the implicit model was a factor 28 to 214 shorter than that of the explicit one. We also provide a new expression for the effective soil water potential sensed by plants in soils with a heterogeneous water potential distribution, which emerged from the implicit model equations. With the proposed implicit model of the root system HA, new concepts are brought which open avenues towards simple and mechanistic RWU models and water stress functions operational for field scale water dynamics simulation

Stochastic Continuum Transport Equations for Field-Scale Solute Transport: Overview of Theoretical and Experimental Results

One-dimensional transport models that predict field-scale averaged solute fluxes are often used to estimate the risk of nonpoint source groundwater contamination by widespread surface-applied chemicals. However, within-field variability of soil hydraulic properties leads to lateral variation in local solute fluxes. When this smaller scale variability is characterized in a geostatistical sense, stochastic three-dimensional flow and transport equations can be used to predict field-scale averaged transport in terms of geostatistical parameters. We discuss the use of stochastic equations for the parameterization of equivalent one-dimensional models predicting averaged solute fluxes. First, we consider the equivalent one-dimensional convection dispersion model and the equivalent dispersivity, which characterizes the spreading of laterally averaged concentrations or solute fluxes. Second, we discuss the parameterization of a stream tube model to predict local transport variables (i.e., distributions of local concentrations and local arrival times) These local transport variables are shown to be important for predicting nonlinear local transport processes and useful for inversely inferring the spatial structure of soil properties. Stochastic flow and transport equations reveal a dependency of equivalent model parameters on transport distance and flow rate, which reflects the importance of smaller scale heterogeneities on field-scale transport. Approximate solutions of stochastic flow and transport equations are obtained for steady-state and uniform flow. The effect of transient flow conditions on transport is discussed. Throughout the paper we refer to experimental and numerical data that confirm or contradict results from stochastic flow and transport equations

Evaluating Experimental Design of ERT for Soil Moisture Monitoring in Contour Hedgerow Intercropping Systems

Contour hedgerow intercropping systems have been proposed as an alternative to traditional agricultural practice with a single crop, as they are effective in reducing run-off and soil erosion. However, competition for water and nutrients between crops and associated hedgerows may reduce the overall performance of these systems. To get a more detailed understanding of the competition for water, spatially resolved monitoring of soil water contents in the soil-plant-atmosphere system is necessary. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is potentially a valuable technique to monitor changes in soil moisture in space and time. In this study, the performance of different ERT electrode arrays to detect the soil moisture dynamics in a mono- and an intercropping system was tested. Their performance was analyzed based on a synthetic study using geophysical measures, such as data recovery and resolution, and using spatial statistics of retrieved water content, such as an adjusted coefficient of variation and semivariances. The synthetic ERT measurements detected differences between the cropping systems and retrieved spatial structure of the soil moisture distribution, but the variance and semivariance were underestimated. Sharp water content contrasts between horizons or in the neighborhood of a root water uptake bulb were smoothened. The addition of electrodes deeper in the soil improved the performance, but sometimes only marginally. ERT is therefore a valuable tool for soil moisture monitoring in the field under different cropping systems if an electrode array is used which can resolve the patterns expected to be present in the medium. The use of spatial statistics allowed to not only identify the overall model recovery, but also to quantify the recovery of spatial structures

Evaluating Experimental Design of ERT for Soil Moisture Monitoring in Contour Hedgerow Intercropping Systems

Contour hedgerow intercropping systems have been proposed as an alternative to traditional agricultural practice with a single crop, as they are effective in reducing run-off and soil erosion. However, competition for water and nutrients between crops and associated hedgerows may reduce the overall performance of these systems. To get a more detailed understanding of the competition for water, spatially resolved monitoring of soil water contents in the soil-plant-atmosphere system is necessary. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is potentially a valuable technique to monitor changes in soil moisture in space and time. In this study, the performance of different ERT electrode arrays to detect the soil moisture dynamics in a mono- and an intercropping system was tested. Their performance was analyzed based on a synthetic study using geophysical measures, such as data recovery and resolution, and using spatial statistics of retrieved water content, such as an adjusted coefficient of variation and semivariances. The synthetic ERT measurements detected differences between the cropping systems and retrieved spatial structure of the soil moisture distribution, but the variance and semivariance were underestimated. Sharp water content contrasts between horizons or in the neighborhood of a root water uptake bulb were smoothened. The addition of electrodes deeper in the soil improved the performance, but sometimes only marginally. ERT is therefore a valuable tool for soil moisture monitoring in the field under different cropping systems if an electrode array is used which can resolve the patterns expected to be present in the medium. The use of spatial statistics allowed to not only identify the overall model recovery, but also to quantify the recovery of spatial structures

Evaluating Experimental Design of ERT for Soil Moisture Monitoring in Contour Hedgerow Intercropping Systems

Contour hedgerow intercropping systems have been proposed as an alternative to traditional agricultural practice with a single crop, as they are effective in reducing run-off and soil erosion. However, competition for water and nutrients between crops and associated hedgerows may reduce the overall performance of these systems. To get a more detailed understanding of the competition for water, spatially resolved monitoring of soil water contents in the soil-plant-atmosphere system is necessary. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is potentially a valuable technique to monitor changes in soil moisture in space and time. In this study, the performance of different ERT electrode arrays to detect the soil moisture dynamics in a mono- and an intercropping system was tested. Their performance was analyzed based on a synthetic study using geophysical measures, such as data recovery and resolution, and using spatial statistics of retrieved water content, such as an adjusted coefficient of variation and semivariances. The synthetic ERT measurements detected differences between the cropping systems and retrieved spatial structure of the soil moisture distribution, but the variance and semivariance were underestimated. Sharp water content contrasts between horizons or in the neighborhood of a root water uptake bulb were smoothened. The addition of electrodes deeper in the soil improved the performance, but sometimes only marginally. ERT is therefore a valuable tool for soil moisture monitoring in the field under different cropping systems if an electrode array is used which can resolve the patterns expected to be present in the medium. The use of spatial statistics allowed to not only identify the overall model recovery, but also to quantify the recovery of spatial structures

Evaluating Experimental Design of ERT for Soil Moisture Monitoring in Contour Hedgerow Intercropping Systems

Contour hedgerow intercropping systems have been proposed as an alternative to traditional agricultural practice with a single crop, as they are effective in reducing run-off and soil erosion. However, competition for water and nutrients between crops and associated hedgerows may reduce the overall performance of these systems. To get a more detailed understanding of the competition for water, spatially resolved monitoring of soil water contents in the soil-plant-atmosphere system is necessary. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is potentially a valuable technique to monitor changes in soil moisture in space and time. In this study, the performance of different ERT electrode arrays to detect the soil moisture dynamics in a mono- and an intercropping system was tested. Their performance was analyzed based on a synthetic study using geophysical measures, such as data recovery and resolution, and using spatial statistics of retrieved water content, such as an adjusted coefficient of variation and semivariances. The synthetic ERT measurements detected differences between the cropping systems and retrieved spatial structure of the soil moisture distribution, but the variance and semivariance were underestimated. Sharp water content contrasts between horizons or in the neighborhood of a root water uptake bulb were smoothened. The addition of electrodes deeper in the soil improved the performance, but sometimes only marginally. ERT is therefore a valuable tool for soil moisture monitoring in the field under different cropping systems if an electrode array is used which can resolve the patterns expected to be present in the medium. The use of spatial statistics allowed to not only identify the overall model recovery, but also to quantify the recovery of spatial structures

Estimation of the hydraulic parameters of unsaturated samples by electrical resistivity tomography

In situ and laboratory experiments have shown that electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is an effective tool to image transient phenomena in soils. However, its application in quantifying soil hydraulic parameters has been limited. In this study, experiments of water inflow in unsaturated soil samples were conducted in an oedometer equipped to perform three-dimensional electrical measurements. Reconstructions of the electrical conductivity at different times confirmed the usefulness of ERT for monitoring the evolution of water content. The tomographic reconstructions were subsequently used in conjunction with a finite-element simulation to infer the water retention curve and the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity. The parameters estimated with ERT agree satisfactorily with those determined using established techniques, hence the proposed approach shows good potential for relatively fast characterisations. Similar experiments could be carried out on site to study the hydraulic behaviour of the entire soil deposi

Coupled root water and solute uptake - a functional structural model

Understanding the distribution and fate of solutes in the soil-plant continuum is of interest for regulatory authorities, customers and producers. For example pesticide legalization requires certain modelling and experimental studies before the substance can be released on the market. The modelling approach used in these procedures, however, does not hold detailed information about the fate of the solute in the plant root system, but treats the root system only as a linear sink term. Uptake is determined as fraction of transpiration of the concentration in the dissolved phase. With an increasing availability of more detailed modelling approaches within the last years, we focus on a more comprehensive description of pesticide uptake by plant roots. R-SWMS is a three dimensional model for water movement in soil and plant roots (1). It also includes solute transport within the roots, which is realized as a particle tracking algorithm (2). We coupled this model to Partrace, another particle tracking algorithm that solves the convection-dispersion-equation in the soil. Active or passive solute transport across the root membrane is possible. While active transport, namely Michaelis-Menten kinetics, requires energy input from the plant, passive transport can be either driven by advective water uptake and/or by the local concentration gradient between root and soil. Root membrane conductance is determined by the lipophilic properties of the solute. Within the root system solutes are transported via the advective water flux. We further implemented microbial decay and sorption to both soil and roots. Benchmarking the coupled 3D model with an analytical solution for a single root at steady state flow conditions showed a good agreement. Using this new approach we could derive global uptake parameters in silico and compare the simulation results to data from hydroponic experiments. The detailed modelling approach enables tracking solutes in time, space and phase within the soil and root system. This novel simulation tool can be used to investigate the influence of soil properties, root system architectures, solute properties, meteorological conditions as well as plant management strategies on plant solute uptake to gain a deeper understanding of solute uptake and transport parameters