Hydrology of a Semiarid Loess‐Paleosol Sequence, and Implications for Buried Soil Connection to the Modern Climate, Plant‐Available Moisture, and Loess Tableland Persistence

Abstract

Soil and vadose zone hydrology provides an important context for understanding both short-term landscape response to weather and current climate change and longer-term landscape evolution, because it governs the amount of infiltration, runoff, and plant-available soil moisture. In loess landscapes, geomorphic responses to weather and climate are tightly coupled to paleosol formation, burial, and reexposure, and thus soil hydrology is also important for understanding the preservation of buried soil organic carbon (OC) (Chaopricha & Marín-Spiotta, 2014). We studied the hydrology of the near-surface vadose zone-containing surface and buried soils-in a thick loess sequence in southwest Nebraska. Our objectives were to better understand the connectivity of buried soils with the modern climate, and the influence of buried soils on moisture availability for the grassland vegetation that stabilizes this highly erodible landscape. These tablelands are plateau-like landforms