Numerous studies, including those of desert plants, have shown reduced stomatal conductance under elevated atmospheric CO2. As a consequence, soil water has been postulated to increase. Soil water was measured for .4 yr at the Nevada Desert Free Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) Facility to determine if elevated atmospheric CO2 conserves soil water for a desert scrub community in the Mojave Desert. We ...

The effects of irrigation with treated urban wastewater (WW) on the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) diversity and soil microbial activities were assayed on a long-term basis in a semiarid orange-tree orchard. After 43 years, the soil irrigated with fresh water (FW) had higher AMF diversity than soils irrigated with WW. Microbial activities were significantly higher in the soils irrigated wit...

• Soil hydrologic parameters including field saturation, field capacity, initiation of plant water stress and plant extraction limits can be reliably determined from electronic soil moisture sensor records. • Soil profile wetting and drying occurs along a regular continuum of soil moisture following the advance of the wetting from to the effective base of the soil profile. • Frozen soil conditi...

Process-based agricultural system models require detailed description of soil hydraulic properties that are usually not available. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the sensitivity of model simulation results to variability in measured soil hydraulic properties and to compare simulation results using measured and default soil parameters. To do so, we measured soil water retention cu...

*Correspondence: Erik F. Braudeau, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Pédologie Hydrostructurale, 32 Avenue Henri Varagnat, 93140 Bondy, France e-mail: [email protected] Current soil water models do not take into account the internal organization of the soil medium and consequently ignore the physical interaction between the water film at the surface of solids that form the soil st...

The assumption that seeds imbibe most of the water required for germination as liquid through seed-to-soil contact has been a dominant theme in germination research and seeding technology. Under most conditions, seeds are also exposed to water vapour during imbibition, but the relative contributions of liquid and vapour are difficult to assess. In water uptake models that include vapour, proced...

Variation in soil water content in the delta plain has its own particularity and is significant for agricultural improvement, the utilization of water resources and flood risk mitigation. In this study, experimental data collected from a plot of farmland located in the Taihu Basin were used to investigate the temporal and vertical variation of soil water content, as well as the effects of indiv...

degraded soils in northwest china are mostly nonproductive due to imbalanced nutrient and inadequate water supply. the effects of manure application at three different rates (7.5, 15.0, and 22.5 t ha–1) combined with chemical fertilizers on soil water and water-use efficiency in maize [compared with chemical fertilizers (control)], under semi-arid conditions in dark loessial soil and over a per...

A 3-yr study was conducted to focus on the impact of surface soil water content on metolachlor (2-chloro-N-(2-ethyl-6-methylphenyl)-N-(2-methoxy-1-methylethyl) acetamide) volatilization from a field with different surface soil water regimes created by subsurface water flow paths. Metolachlor vapor fluxes were measured at two locations within the field where local meteorological and soil conditi...

BACKGROUND Global climatic change is generally expected to stimulate net primary production, and consequently increase soil carbon (C) input. The enhanced C input together with potentially increased precipitation may affect soil microbial processes and plant growth. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS To examine the effects of C and water additions on soil microbial properties and plant growth, we...