The magnitude of hydraulic redistribution of soil water by roots and its impact on soil water balance were estimated by monitoring time courses of soil water status at multiple depths and root sap flow under drought conditions in a dry ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex Laws) ecosystem and in a moist Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) ecosystem. The fate of deuterated wat...

Although roots in dry soil layers are commonly rehydrated by internal hydraulic redistribution during the nocturnal period, patterns of tissue rehydration are poorly understood. Rates of nocturnal rehydration were examined in roots of different orders in Vaccinium corymbosum L. 'Bluecrop' (Northern highbush blueberry) grown in a split-pot system with one set of roots in relatively moist soil an...

With the aim of setting up a simpli®ed method to measure hydraulic conductivity of structured soils at saturation, a method reported by Ahuja et al. (Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. J. 48 (1984) 699±702; Soil Sci. 148 (1989) 404±411), which also refers to the generalised equation of Kozeny±Carman and the scaling theory, is tested in this paper. Data were elaborated from hydraulic conductivity measurements...

The addition of charcoal (or biochar) to soil has significant carbon sequestration and agronomic potential, making it important to determine how this potentially large anthropogenic carbon influx will alter ecosystem functions. We used column experiments to quantify how hydrologic and nutrient-retention characteristics of three soil materials differed with biochar amendment. We compared three h...

Effects of soil and atmospheric drought on whole-tree transpiration (E(T)), leaf water potential (Ψ(L)) and whole-tree hydraulic conductance (K(T)) were investigated in mature rubber trees (Hevea brasiliensis, clone RRIM 600) during the full canopy stage in the rainy season in a drought-prone area of northeast Thailand. Under well-watered soil conditions, transpiration was tightly regulated in ...

An analytical solution of macrodispersivity was derived for the adsorbing solute transport in physically and chemically heterogeneous unsaturated soils under the condition of gravity-dominated flow. The unsaturated hydraulic conductivity and water content were treated as spatial random functions. The chemical adsorption was described by a linear equilibrium isotherm, and the adsorption coeffici...

[1] The focus of this study is on the role of precipitation uncertainty in the estimation of soil texture and soil hydraulic properties for application to land-atmosphere modeling systems. This work extends a recent study by Santanello et al. (2007) in which it was shown that soil texture and related physical parameters may be estimated using a combination of multitemporal microwave remote sens...