Influence of Abandoning Agricultural Land Use on Hydrophysical Properties of Sandy Soil

Abstract

Soil water repellency can significantly degrade its agricultural utility and bring aboutnegative environmental consequences (i.e., reduced infiltration capacity, enhanced overland flow,increased erosion rates, and water infiltration occurred in irregular patterns). The presented studyaimed to establish whether excluding albic Podzols from agricultural production and theirspontaneous inhabitation by a pine tree stand affected their hydrophysical properties. Studies withthe application of the water drop penetration time (WDPT) test showed that a change in the landuse increased the potential water repellency of the surface layer (horizon A) and caused itschangeover from strongly repellent class (Class 2) to extremely repellent (Class 5). The relationshipbetween soil moisture content and wettability made it possible to determine the critical soil moisturecontent (CSMC) for the occurrence of the phenomenon of water repellency. It was confirmed thatthe CSMC value increased along with a change in use. For the site under arable use, it was 9–10vol.%, whereas for the site formerly under arable use and currently covered predominantly by apine tree stand, a value in the range of 14–16 vol.% was reached. A laboratory experiment on surfacerunoff of the soil formerly under arable use showed that over half of the rainfall may be transformedinto surface runoff as a result of occurring water repellency. This means that exceeding the criticalsoil moisture content makes the recharge of soil retention difficult and may significantly influencethe water balance of soil, as well as increasing its susceptibility to drought.

Soil Hydrology for a Sustainable Land Management: Theory and Practice

“…This Special Issue collects 12 original contributions focused on soil hydrology and aimed to address the challenging topic of sustainable land management. From a methodological point of view, the contributions involve both field [8][9][10][11]13,19] and laboratory [14,15] experiments, and modelling [6,[16][17][18] studies. The Special Issue includes studies carried out at different spatial scales, from the field-to regional-scales.…”

“…The Special Issue includes studies carried out at different spatial scales, from the field-to regional-scales. A wide range of geographic regions are also covered, including Brazil [11,13], Mexico [16], Mediterranean basin [6,8,10,14,18], and Central [15,17,19] and Western [9] Europe. Specifically, contributions focus on five main topics including (i) land-use change [8,12,18,19], (ii) water use efficiency [14], (iii) erosion risk [6,17], (iv) solute transport [15], and (v) new methods and devices for improved characterization of soil physical and hydraulic properties [9][10][11]16].…”

“…Topic (i) comprises four papers. Hewelke et al [19] assessed the influence of the abandoning arable use and the spontaneous afforestation with a pine stand on soil hydraulic properties. This author showed evidence of the occurrence of soil water repellency on the surface layer.…”

“…Contributions of this SI were focused on: BEST-procedure [7] application, for a simple and expeditious method for estimating hydraulic properties of the soil [8][9][10][11]; Steady version of the Simplified method based on a Beerkan Infiltration run (SSBI method) [12] for field saturated hydraulic conductivity (K s ) estimation [13]; Hydrus-1D and SWAP codes for modelling soil water dynamics [11,14,15]; a new low-cost device for the automation of K s measurements in the laboratory [16]. Also, investigations on the topic of rainfall erosivity [6,17], or the impact of land-vegetation cover interaction on soil water content [18] and soil water repellency [19], increased our knowledge on the sustainable management of specific agro-environments. A synthesis of main results and/or innovative methods to assess those changes from a soil hydrology point of view were reported in the following section.…”

Soil Functional Responses to Natural Ecosystem Restoration of a Pine Forest Peucedano-Pinetum after a Fire

“…The natural SWR of some forest soils, on the other hand, can lead to a divergent course of fires, especially so-called low fires, and impede firefighting action. Many researchers point to the relationship between pine tree stands releasing significant amounts of waxes and the phenomenon of SWR [25][26][27]. Microbial activity, especially in the rhizosphere, which impacts hydrophobicity [28], alters hydraulic soil functions.…”