Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Soil microbial communities experience shifts in the diversity and composition during dehydration and rehydration cycles. [5] Soil moisture affects carbon cycling a phenomenon known as Birch effect. [6] [7] Temperature variations in soil are influenced by factors such as seasonality, environmental conditions, vegetation, and soil composition.
Pores (the spaces that exist between soil particles) provide for the passage and/or retention of gasses and moisture within the soil profile.The soil's ability to retain water is strongly related to particle size; water molecules hold more tightly to the fine particles of a clay soil than to coarser particles of a sandy soil, so clays generally retain more water. [2]
Groundwater recharge is an important process for sustainable groundwater management, since the volume-rate abstracted from an aquifer in the long term should be less than or equal to the volume-rate that is recharged. Recharge can help move excess salts that accumulate in the root zone to deeper soil layers, or into the groundwater system.
Improving soil drainage is a balancing act requiring consideration of soil composition and compaction, and may take a number of approaches to improve.
Over-irrigation can cause deep drainage from rising water tables that can lead to problems of irrigation salinity requiring watertable control by some form of subsurface land drainage. However, if the soil is under-irrigated, it gives poor soil salinity control, which leads to increased soil salinity with the consequent buildup of toxic salts ...
One exception to this rule is when the clay is present in dry conditions. In this case, the soil can develop large cracks which lead to higher infiltration capacity. [3] Soil compaction also impacts infiltration capacity. Compaction of soils results in decreased porosity within the soils, which decreases infiltration capacity. [4]
SuDS efforts make urban drainage systems more compatible with components of the natural water cycle such as storm surge overflows, soil percolation, and bio-filtration. These efforts hope to mitigate the effect human development has had or may have on the natural water cycle , particularly surface runoff and water pollution trends.
Over time the soil will develop a profile that depends on the intensities of biota and climate. While a soil can achieve relative stability of its properties for extended periods, [117] the soil life cycle ultimately ends in soil conditions that leave it vulnerable to erosion. [122]