Abstract:The variability of water repellency of pine-forest arenic regosols and its influence on infiltration processes were measured in southwest Slovakia. The water drop penetration time (WDPT) tests of soil water repellency and infiltration tests with a miniature tension infiltrometer (3 mm diameter) were performed. Large differences in infiltration were observed over centimetre spatial resolution, with WDPT tests suggesting water repellency varying from extreme to moderate levels. For soils with severe to extreme water repellency determined with WDPT, steady state infiltration was not reached in tests with the miniature tension infiltrometer, making it impossible to estimate sorptivity. Where sorptivity could be measured, the correlation with WDPT was poor. All results suggest that hydraulic properties of soil change below the centimetre scale resolution of the current study, probably due to a presence of unevenly distributed hydrophobic material.
The long-term trends of mean monthly nitrate concentrations in stream and drainage runoff were evaluated in the experimental microbasin Rybárik (0.119 km 2 ) at the Institute of Hydrology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, during the period 1987-2005. The results of analyses indicate a decreasing trend of nitrate concentration after the year 1989, but with relatively high losses in some years and relatively low losses in other years. This decreasing trend is mainly caused by a decrease in the use of nitrogen fertilizers. The nitrate concentration in surface runoff strongly correlates with runoff and fertilization. Based on measured data, an empirical relation was found describing the dependence of annual nitrate transport in the stream on annual runoff depth and on the annual amount of applied nitrogen fertilizers.
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