Application of Soil Physics in Environmental Analyses: Measuring, Modelling and Data Integration

508 Pages·2014·14.8 MB·English

by  Wenceslau Geraldes Teixeira

Progress in Soil Science
Wenceslau Geraldes Teixeira
Marcos Bacis Ceddia
Marta Vasconcelos Ottoni
Guilheme Kangussu Donnagema
Editors
Application of
Soil Physics in
Environmental
Analyses
Measuring, Modelling and Data
Integration
Application of Soil Physics in Environmental
Analyses
Progress in Soil Science
Series Editors:
Alfred E. Hartemink, Department of Soil Science, FD Hole Soils Lab,
University of Wisconsin—Madison, USA
AlexB.McBratney,FacultyofAgriculture,Food&NaturalResources,
The University of Sydney, Australia
Aims and Scope
ProgressinSoilScienceseriesaimstopublishbooksthatcontainnovelapproaches
in soil science in its broadest sense – books should focus on true progress in a
particular area of the soil science discipline. The scope of the series is to publish
books that enhance the understanding of the functioning and diversity of soils in
all parts of the globe. The series includes multidisciplinary approaches to soil
studies and welcomes contributions of all soil science subdisciplines such as: soil
genesis, geography and classification, soil chemistry, soil physics, soil biology,
soil mineralogy, soil fertility and plant nutrition, soil and water conservation,
pedometrics,digitalsoilmapping,proximalsoilsensing,soilsandlandusechange,
globalsoilchange,naturalresourcesandtheenvironment.
For furthervolumes:
http://www.springer.com/series/8746
Wenceslau Geraldes Teixeira
Marcos Bacis Ceddia
Marta Vasconcelos Ottoni
Guilheme Kangussu Donnagema
Editors
Application of Soil Physics
in Environmental Analyses
Measuring, Modelling and Data Integration
Editors
WenceslauGeraldesTeixeira MarcosBacisCeddia
GuilhemeKangussuDonnagema SoilsDepartment
SoilPhysics RuralFederalUniversityofRiodeJaneiro
EmbrapaSoils Serope´dica,RJ,Brazil
RiodeJaneiro,RJ,Brazil
MartaVasconcelosOttoni
DepartmentofHydrology
CompanhiadePesquisade
RecursosMinerais(CPRM)
GeologicalSurveyofBrazil
RiodeJaneiro,RJ,Brazil
ISBN978-3-319-06012-5 ISBN978-3-319-06013-2(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-06013-2
SpringerChamHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2014942554
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Foreword
ThesingularimportanceofsoilastheEarth’slife-supportingsystemisincreasingly
recognized. The focus on soils becomes a global phenomenon, and the United
Nations General Assembly has declared 2015 as the International Year of Soils.
Various disciplines supply and use knowledge about soils, and soil physics tradi-
tionallyprovidesessentialinformationaboutsoilphysicalpropertiesandprocesses
and characterizes soil as a complex medium where a multitude of chemical and
biological processes act and interact. Agricultural practices and ecological trends
bothaffectandareaffectedbysoilphysicalproperties.Ecologicalservicesofsoils
aswellasthereactionofsoiltoextremeeventscannotbeunderstoodandmanaged
withoutsoilphysicsanalysis.
Itisthetimeofopportunityforsoilphysics.Thedemandonunderstandingthe
mechanisms of process level, understanding of flow, transport, storage, and trans-
formationprocessesinsoilsisincreasingatvariousscales.Theexistingempirical
knowledgeappearstobenotsufficientsinceitwasaccumulatedinclimatecondi-
tions and management practices that are changing. Tropical regions and currently
warmingpolarregionsincludevastareasofinterestforagriculture,wherelittleis
knownaboutthephysicalpropertiesofsoils.Agricultureinthoseregionsisdevoid
of means to predict management-related trends. At larger scales, understanding
mechanisms of physical processes in soils is needed to evaluate the potential of
carbon sequestration, to address food security issues, and to quantify the soil
controlsoftheclimate.
New prospects in soil physics open as novel measurement techniques such as
wirelesssoilmoisturesensornetworks,air-borneandground-basedremotesensing,
and hydrogeophysical measurement techniques are developing and become avail-
able. Clearly, we have now entered the “big data” era in the field of soil water
content sensing with data sets often comprising millions of measurements and
providinguniqueopportunitiestostudysoilwaterdynamics.Thiscreatessubstan-
tialchallengesinmanaging,sharing,analyzing,andvisualizingsoilmoisturedata.
The development of smart adaptive data collection and integration strategies pre-
sentsanexcitingavenuetoexplore.
v
vi Foreword
Soil physics already benefits from the current trend toward multidisciplinary
research.Thefast-developingdisciplineofhydropedologyemphasizestherelation-
ship between soil structure and its hydrologic functioning as one of the corner-
stones. This provides the much needed conceptual base for the interpretation and
presentationofsoilwaterdynamicsincomplexlandscapes.Thestructure-function
relationships insoil physics are equally important at finer scales, where computer
tomography creates the opportunity for understanding the habitat and functioning
of soil microbial communities, and at coarser scales, where the structure of soil
covercontrolsandisaffectedbythespatialandtemporalplantcommunityandland
usestructure.Progressinsisterdisciplineswillundoubtedlycreatenewopportuni-
tiesforinterdisciplinaryenrichmentinsoilscience,andsoilphysicsinparticular.It
isimportanttomonitorthisprogressandseekinteractions.
A strong monitoring tradition in soil physics has immensely helped to under-
standphysicalprocessesinsoils.Itisrealizednowadaysthatthesebenefitswillbe
magnified if the monitoring of soil physical variables will be coupled with the
monitoringofchemical,biological,andplant-relatedvariables.Arecentscientific
breakthrough related to the isotope analysis of water coming to, stored in, and
leaving soil is one successful example. Soil physics results find active use in
researchandmanagement ofagriculturalsystems.Theconcurrentmonitoringand
modelingofplantandsoilvariablesandinteractionsappearsofutmostsignificance
since the response of soil-plant systems to droughts and inundations gains impor-
tance,andadaptationstrategiesofeventhemostwidelystudiedplantsremainonly
partiallyunderstood.Thecombinationofmonitoringandmodelingviadataassim-
ilationhasapotentialtoprovidenewdataabouttheadequacyofexistingmodels.
The demand on soil physical information has exposed several areas where
knowledge needs to be substantially improved. Soils are intrinsically heteroge-
neous,andsomeheterogeneities,suchasmacropores,albeitrare,controltheability
ofsoiltostoreandconductwatersoilphysicalprocessesatfieldscale.Itisagood
timetoreflectonhowtheseheterogeneitiesarecharacterizedandwhatinformation
about them is of maximum use to assist in management decisions. Heterogeneity
causes variability, and the efficient techniques of the characterization of soil
physicalvariabilityremaintheobjectofscientificpursuit.
A critical look is needed at the products that soil physics provides for most
widely used applications. Soil physical quality evaluation, for example, is invalu-
able for screening purposes and sustainability projections. It is important to ask
whetherthecurrentmetricsofsoilphysicalqualityaresuitedforthesepurposesand
whether there are data and ideas to develop their modern replacements.
Pedotransferfunctions,thatis,empiricalrelationshipsbetweenprocessparameters
and easily measured soil properties, find broad applications in modeling projects.
Manypedotransferfunctionshavebeendeveloped,andananalysisseemstobein
order to derive guidelines on their individual or combined use. Regional
pedotransfer development projects have been useful, and more needs to be done
inthisfield.Soilphysicstraditionallytranslatestheprocesslevelunderstandinginto
mechanisticmodels,thusachievingknowledgepackaginganddissemination.One
research need consists in eliminating the discrepancy between measuring water
Foreword vii
flow parameters in equilibrium conditions and using these parameters to simulate
nonequilibriumflowandtransport.
Measuring,modeling,anddataintegrationcreatetheapplicationofsoilphysics
inresearchareasimpactingglobalissueswheresoilphysics(andsoilscience)can
makeimportantcontributions,suchascharacterizingplant–soilinteractionsinthe
changinghydrologiccycleandfoodproductionandvaluingandpreservingthesoil-
associated ecosystem services. Soil physics as a relatively young discipline will
greatlybenefitfromtakingonthesebigchallenges.
Beltsville,MD,USA YakovPachepksy

Preface
Thegreeneconomyandtherecognitionoftheimportancetopreservesoilandwater
havebeendiscussedinmanyinterdisciplinaryforumsintheworld,whichinvokes
thenecessitytobettercharacterizethesoilandunderstandthebehaviorofwaterin
thismedium.Soilscientistsareanintegralpartofinterdisciplinarystudiesaboutthe
interactions in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum, soil management practices,
and indicators of soil quality. The higher frequency of natural disasters, such as
landslidesandthunderstorms,addressestheimportancetointegratesoilcharacter-
istics inpredictivemodels.Thisbookseeks tointegratetheeffortsofscientiststo
meet this demand. Soil physics research has grown considerably, specially in the
use ofinnovative sensors;software,soildatabase,algorithms,andmodelingtech-
niques have been introduced into the soil-water relationship and environmental
monitoring. These advances are thoroughly dispersed in articles and conference
proceedings. In this volume, the authors will bring together the effectiveness of
manynewfieldandlabsensorsandexaminethecurrentstate-of-the-artinmodeling
anddataanalysis.Italsoincludesinnovativeapproachesandcasestudiesintropical
soils.Futuredirectionsinsoilphysicsresearcharegivenbykeyresearchersinthis
discipline. The topics tackled by the chapters were divided into five parts that
include: Part I – Integrating data in soil physics to discuss the potential to use
data sets and modeling methodologies in major environmental problems. It is
proposed to re-establish the knowledge chain, linking tacit knowledge to cutting-
edge science. Moreover, the use of field soil data in flow phenomena, or
hydropedology, is discussed, and some examples are provided. Part II – Data
analysisinsoilphysicsandpedotranferfunctionspresentstheanalysisofdatain
state-space and geoestatistical approaches. State-space has been used in the last
decades to describe spatial processes of transport- or biomass-related state vari-
ables. The opportunities to use this technique for analyzing experiments are
addressed, and examples of use in tropical soils are given. The development and
useofpedotransferfunctions(PTF)forsoilhydraulicparametersandfunctionsare
exemplified for a Brazilian database. The significance of predictors is discussed,
and many PTF equations for tropical soil hydraulic parameters and functions are
ix