Table Of ContentKlaus Reichardt · Luís Carlos Timm
Soil,
Plant and
Atmosphere
Concepts, Processes and Applications
Soil, Plant and Atmosphere
Klaus Reichardt (cid:129) Luís Carlos Timm
Soil, Plant and
Atmosphere
Concepts, Processes
and Applications
KlausReichardt LuísCarlosTimm
CentrodeEnergiaNuclearnaAgricultura RuralEngineeringDepartment
andEscolaSuperiordeagricultura FacultyofAgronomy
“LuizdeQueiróz” FederalUniversityofPelotas
UniversityofSaoPaulo CapãodoLeão,RioGrandedoSul
Piracicaba,SãoPaulo,Brazil Brazil
TranslationfromthePortugueselanguageedition:“Solo,plantaeatmosfera”byKlaus
Reichardt and Luís Carlos Timm, 2nd Edition © Editora Manole 2012. All rights
reserved.
ISBN978-3-030-19321-8 ISBN978-3-030-19322-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19322-5
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To my wife, Ceres; my sons, Roberto (in memoriam)
and Gustavo; and my daughter, Fernanda.
Klaus Reichardt
To my parents, Ely and Edemar Timm (in memorium).
To my wife, Cristiane; my daughter, Ana Clara;
and my two sons, Luís Augusto and José Henrique.
Luís Carlos Timm
Foreword
ItisaThursdaymorninginDavis,California,onSeptember7,1995,andIam
prettynervousbecauseinabout2h,Iwillhavetogiveanoralpresentationon
behalfoftheVadoseZoneHydrologyConference,whichisheldtohonorthe
career achievements of Donald R. Nielsen and James W. Biggar. While
waiting in the foyer of the conference hall, a person with a very friendly
appearance greets me and introduces himself with “I am Klaus!” So, this is
KlausReichardt,Ithinktomyself.Finally,Ihavethepleasuretomeethimin
person. As a graduate student more than 20 years ago, he was already a
pioneer in introducing scaling concepts into soil physics. And returning to
Brazil, his unprecedented creative sampling of fields to learn more about
symbioticnitrogenfixationgreatlyaffectedmyentirecareer.Asheistalking
to me with a radiating smile and positive attitude, my nervousness immedi-
ately subsides. Later during the conference, I learn about the great artistic
abilityofKlauswhenIadmirehishand-paintedpictureofthemainbuilding
of the campus of the University of São Paulo, Piracicaba, attractively
surroundedbythenamesofDon’sstudentsandscholars.
LookingbackovertheyearsasIbecamemorethoroughlyacquaintedwith
KlausandCeres,hiswife,Ihavelearnedmoreandmoreabouthistremendous
achievementsinhisscientificcareer.Oneday,oneofmycolleaguessaid:“It
seemsthatsoilphysicsisoneofthestrongestagriculturaldisciplinesinBrazil.
Doyouknowwhy?”—“Ido.BecauseofKlausReichardt.”Klausisoneofthe
mostinfluentialscientistsworldwide.Themanyawardshehasreceiveddonot
do justice to celebrate his outstanding capacity, creativity, and personality.
OneofhisgreatestachievementswasthefoundationoftheNationalCenterof
Research and Development of Agricultural Instrumentation (CNPDIA) in
which agronomists and soil physicists collaborate to improve productivity
and further develop Brazil’s agriculture and ag-related science. But there is
alsooneawardthatdeservestobementionedhereasanexpressionofKlaus’
specialpersonalityandcitizenship:in2013,hebecameelectedcitizenofhis
hometown,Piracicaba.
Nomorethan 5yearsafterourfirstmeeting, Ihadtheuniquepleasureto
interact with Klaus’ graduate student, Luís Carlos Timm, who worked with
me for half a year at ZALF in Germany. During this time, he worked
intensively on the analysis of internal drainage experiments and on many
spatial data sets that he had collected in Brazil. Today, Timm, who carries
degrees in Agricultural Engineering and Agronomy and teaches soil physics
vii
viii Foreword
andhydrology,isaprofessorattheFederalUniversityofPelotas,isoneofthe
leading experts in state-space analysis, and has applied this stochastic
modeling approach to a variety of data sets that he and his students have
beenaccumulatingovertheyears.Formanyyears,ProfessorsReichardtand
Timmhavetaughtsoilphysicsandspatialandtemporalstatisticstostudents
and young scientists from around the world at the International Centre for
TheoreticalPhysicsinTrieste,Italy,causingeverlastinginspirationsforthese
young scientists to enhance education, research, and practical agriculture in
each of their countries. The memories of my first visit in Piracicaba on the
occasion of the “First Brazilian Soil Physics Conference” in September of
2011,whichisorganizedbyProfessorQuirijndeJongvanLier,whenKlaus,
Ceres, and I met again, are still fresh in my mind. The experiences of this
conference and the following one in Rio de Janeiro, which is organized by
MarcosCeddiaandMartaVasconcelosOttoniin2013,wereinspirationalfor
me in many ways: the strong link between applied and basic sciences as a
result of the high level of education and, among individuals, the respect for
eachother.Thesevisitswereawonderfulinitiationofcontinuingourexisting
andthefoundationofnewfriendshipsandinteraction.
WiththistranslationoftheirnewestbookOSOLO,AÁGUA,APLANTAE
A ATMOSFERA (Soil, Water, Plant and Atmosphere), Professors Reichardt
and Timm reach out to a broader audience. Especially for those readers
without a strong background in agronomy and earth sciences, this book is a
great“primer”andprovidesinsightsandunderstandingoftheroleofhuman
beings in managing soils, water, crops, and atmosphere in sustainable ways.
While introducing many complex topics and presenting state-of-the-art
knowledge ofmany agro-ecosystem processes, this bookiswrittenin away
that can easily be understood by laymen, i.e., without many equations and
withveryexplanatoryillustrations.
Reichardt and Timm walk the readers through 19 chapters in which they
emphasizetheimportanceofknowledgeaboutnaturalsystemsandabouthow
foodandfibercanbeproducedefficientlywhilesustainingtheresourcesand
importantecosystem-regulatingfunctions.Withtheirfirstchapter,theauthors
introduceandillustratethemajorchallengeofagrowingpopulationonearth
and the increasing scarcity of resources. In Chap. 2, the fundamental
properties of water and its role in the environment, its national abundance,
and its relevance for agricultural management are explained. In Chap. 3, the
authorspresentthefundamentalsofsoils,beginningwithaprofiledescription,
exploring the details of clay mineral structure, and then transitioning to an
overviewofsoiltypesinBrazil.Cropvegetativegrowth,differentphenologi-
cal stages, and aspects of the plant life cycle are elucidated in Chap. 4. An
overviewofgascompositionoftheatmosphereandfundamentalsofpressure
laws, temperature, andradiationisgiven inChap.5.Inthenext chapter,the
readerisabletograspsomeprinciplesofthermodynamicsandisintroducedto
thecapillarityofthesoilporesystem.Aniceoverviewontheinstrumentsfor
themeasurementoffundamentalsoilstatevariablesrelatedtosoilmoistureis
providedinChap.6.Thelogicalnextstepistheintroductiontoprinciplesof
watertransportinsoils.Ofcourse,whenweconsiderwatertransportinsoils,
we have to account for solutes that are transported with water, while their
Foreword ix
electricalchargesdeterminetheinteractionwiththesolidphaseandbetween
solutes.AthoroughinsightinthethermalregimeofsoilsisgiveninChap.10,
and the reader has the opportunity to learn about theoretical aspects and
practical implications of soil water infiltration in Chaps. 11 and 12, before
the attention is directed toward evaporation, evapotranspiration, and crop
coefficient. Chapter 14 is focused on the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum.
The aspects ofthesoilwaterbalance areillustrated inChap.15, whichends
withtheimpactofagriculturalproductiononthewaterbalance.Plantnutrient
uptakeisthetopicofChap.16,andChaps.17and18aredevotedtothestudy
ofthevariabilityofmeasurementswithintheSoil-Plant-AtmosphereSystem,
animportantsubjectinvolvingstatisticsandspaceandtimedataseries.They
close the book with Chap. 19, on dimensional analysis. This book is an
importantresourceforthosewho wanttomake themselvesfamiliarwiththe
basic mass and energy transfer processes in agricultural ecosystems. It is a
great stimulation for those who decide to study therelevantprocessesofthe
water cycle, the crop production, and the processes that govern the cyclic
alterationsofclimateinfurtherdetail.
KlausReichardtandLuísCarlosTimmdeserveagreatappreciationforthis
extremelywell-writtenbookandfortheirsuccessfulattempttopresentcom-
plex matters in a digestible way to the readers who do not yet have a huge
scientificbackgroundorthoseattheentrancetoagriculturalandgeosciences
inBrazilasoneofthestrongestnationsintermsofagriculturalproductionand
other countries. This book is truly inspirational, and with its great educative
value, it will help to replace emotion-driven beliefs and assumptions with
qualified knowledge, leading to rationale solutions for food supply for our
societyandclean,sustainablemanagementofresources.
UniversityofKentucky OleWendroth
Lexington,KY,USA
SSSA
Madison,WI,USA
Preface
One of the goals of this book is to give a broad and detailed view of soil
physicsappliedtotheSoil-Plant-AtmosphereSystem(SPAS).Becauseofthe
relative depth in physics, the text involves a great number of mathematical
concepts, which chase away agronomists and environmentalists, who reject
reading texts full of mathematical expressions. Therefore, we chose to write
thechaptersinaverycomprehensiveway,progressingslowlywiththeuseof
math.OnlyinChap.3westartintroducingderivativesandintegrals.Thereaf-
ter, math becomes more and more present, culminating with the solution of
differentialequationsneededforthediscussionofmostprocessesthatoccurin
theSPAS.So,ifthereadergoesdirectlytoChap.11becauseheisinterested
in infiltration, he probably will soon give up. In this Preface, the authors
intend to illustrate the thoughts made above, placing a parallel between the
exact sciences, used to describe here the Soil-Plant-Atmosphere System,
whicharepredictableandCartesian,andthehumansciencesthatinvolveall
ofus,likeart,love,smell,nostalgia,andenvy,allconsideredinexact,difficult
toquantify,andalmostalwaysunpredictable.
Forthisparallel,webeginwiththeacademiccareerofastartingindividual,
which, for sure, involves exact aspects intertwined with human aspects, and
each one, whether student, researcher, or teacher, evolves according to his
unique path, with successes and stumblings, to conquer his place in the
scientific world. The pathway is long, in which each one develops his own
resourcesforaself-assertionandarrivaltoadestinythatnevercomes.Daniel
Hillel(1987)wasabletoformulate aninterestingmodeltodescribe whathe
calls the flow of scientific development through the interaction of processes
addressed by the exact sciences, interconnected by those who addressed the
humansciences.Thefollowingfigure,adaptedfromthisauthor,illustratesthis
flow, imagining a researcher (you, the reader) who, at the beginning of his
academiccareer,takeshissailboatand,departingfromapointA,navigatesin
the River of Science, against the water current and the wind, in the
directions B, C, D, etc., taking part of the scientific development of human-
kind.Ontherighthand,thebankoftheRiverofScienceistheMarginofthe
Theory,wheretheoreticalaspectsaremainlydealtwith,andonthelefthand
side, the Data Margin or that of Practice where scientific experimentation
prevails.Forthereadernotversedintheartofsailing,ithastobesaidthatthe
only alternative to sail against the wind is the zigzag path, which, in our
scenery, is from one margin to the other. The journey starts from point A,
xi
xii Preface
passingthroughB,C,etc.,towardZ(placedininfinitythatisneverreached).
We might consider that Einstein, Freud, Newton, and so many more have
attainedZ,butinfact,eachofthemhasmadehisownjourney.Inthistravel,
theresearcherisgoingthroughobstacles,withvoluntarydeviationsofrouteor
not,enteringintherivers, tributaries, andlakes orbeating ontherocks.The
navigation from the Data Margin to the Theory Margin symbolizes the
inductive processes that, based on some experimental and particular data,
lead to the establishment of generalizations and general conclusions or
theories.FromtheTheoryMargintotheDataMargin,thesailorimplements
thedeductiveprocesses,whichtakeatheorytoitsverification,validation,or
proofbymeansofexperimentalobservations.
III. THE ROCK
Theoreticalmodels Unstablemathematical
Premature withoutvalidation formulations
theoretical Theoretical Non convergentmodels
speculation conclusions Equations without
without Solution
onlytheory experimental Singularities
leads tothe support
truth
I. RIVER OF THE DEVIL
MARGIN OF THE THEORY
1 2 Predominant
wind
5
A B Water C D E F X Y Z
flow
Directionof
3 increasing knowledge
4
MARGIN OF DATA AND EXPERIMENTATIONS
Diveinto a seaof data
Experimentsof too longduration
Drawersfullof data
Measurementsthat alwaysfail
Data collectedwithout
Excessivereplicationsby insecurity
scientificbasis
Deviationfrom theoreticalaspects
Deviationfrom
Experimental designs out of reality
theoreticalaspects
II. BLUE AND DEEP OCEAN IV. FORCED LABOR CAMP
TheflowofscientificdevelopmentalongtheRiverofScience,goingfromAtoZ.I,II,II,andIV,indicatesthedeviations
fromthemainroute;1,2,3,4,and5indicatetrajectoryobstacleshitduringtravel.Source:AdaptedfromHillel,1987
The ideal trajectory is indicated by the solid zigzag line with arrows,
without hitting obstacles (1, 2, 3, etc.) and without route deviations into the
riversorlakes.Fewareabletofollowthiscleanroute;eachoneisatthemercy
ofhisdestinyandmakeshisowntrajectory.SomegetlostintheRiverofthe
Devil on the margin of the theory, where they believe that only the theory
bringsustothetruth,usingmodelswithoutvalidationandconcludingwithout
experimental evidence. Others hit on the rock, using unstable formulations,
non-convergingmodels,andequationswithoutsolutionandbecominglostin
singularities. Still others, on the margin of data and practice, get lost in the
