Academic literature on the topic 'Slaking crust'

The effects of cultivated fallowing (maximum disturbance), direct drilling (intermediate disturbance) and direct drilling using narrow sowing points (minimum disturbance) on soil physical and hydraulic properties were assessed after 3 years of cropping treatments at Lockhart in the southern wheat-belt of New South Wales. Infiltration was measured in the field using simulated rain, before and after the site had been uniformly grazed by sheep. Minimum disturbance produced some of the highest soil strengths, aggregate stabilities and bulk densities in the top 50 or 100 mm of soil, whereas intermediate disturbance gave the lowest bulk densities. Field infiltration of simulated rain was enhanced by reducing the level of tillage disturbance. Grazing the site with sheep generally reduced infiltration, although the ranking of treatments remained similar. Measurements of hydraulic conductivity, porosity and pore continuity on soil cores recovered from the field site failed to reflect treatment differences in field infiltration, suggesting that the properties of the bulk soil were not responsible for these differences. Laboratory assessment of surface crusting using repacked top soil (0-50 mm) showed that slaking on wetting and raindrop impact produced highly impermeable crusts or surface seals that control infiltration with simulated rain. The formation of crusts or seals after 30 min of simulated rain at 42 mm/h caused a 100-fold reduction in the effective hydraulic conductivity of the surface soil. Although the tillage treatments had no significant effect on crust hydraulic conductivities, we suggest that crusts or seals formed on cultivated soils were responsible for differences observed in field infiltration. In particular, the reductions in infiltration produced by grazing the field site with sheep suggest that the surface soil may have become crusted and compacted.

The effect of sheep trampling and stocking rate on the physical properties of a red duplex soil with two initially different structures was examined over an 8 week period when the soil was wet following winter rains. The experimental site was located at Merredin in Western Australia where the average annual rainfall is 307 mm. A previous long-term tillage and gypsum trial at the experimental site had resulted in the development of contrasting topsoil structures. Three grazing treatments were imposed at the trial site: grazing at the normal high stocking rate (8 DSE ha-1), grazing at half the normal stocking rate (4 DSE ha-1), and no grazing (where pasture was mown to simulate grazing without trampling). Topsoil structure was assesed by measuring water-stable aggregation (> 2 mm diameter aggregates), the relative contribution of dispersion and slaking to structural instability (measured as soil strength on < 2 mm fine earth soil fractions), steady-state infiltration rates (at 10 mm tension), and in situ soil strength characteristics (measured as penetration resistance). At the end of the grazing period, all structure attributes measured showed that topsoil structure had been damaged as a result of sheep trampling. The magnitude of such structure damage was affected by the initial physical condition of the soil and stocking rate. When compared with ungrazed pasture, there was a greater decline in structural condition as a consequence of grazing on less well-structured soil than on better-structured soil. Halving the normal stocking rate reduced the degree of structure damage on both soils. Within-season variability in soil hydraulic properties was large. The temporal changes in infiltration rates were attributed to changes in drainage pore volume brought about by the growth and decay of pasture roots, the formation and disruption of a surface crust, and the processes of soil compaction and remoulding resulting from animal trampling (no direct measurements were made). The variability in hydraulic behaviour found in this study emphasizes the need to maintain consistent sampling dates and soil water contents at sampling in long-term studies on soil structure changes.

The hydraulic resistance of the surface crust was determined by a combination of two infiltrometric techniques: first, a surface measurement of steady-state infiltration rate is conducted by a mini-disk tension infiltrometer (MDI); then, the surface crust is removed, its thickness is measured, and a ponded infiltration test is performed at the same site. The Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters (BEST) method is applied to estimate the hydraulic properties of the underlying soil provided the particlesize distribution and the bulk density are known. Under the assumption of a unit gradient of hydraulic head below the soil crust, the pressure head at the interface crust-soil is derived. Finally, the hydraulic conductivity of the crust is calculated from the steady-state water flow measured by the MDI and the Darcy law. The method was tested in a sandy loam and a clay soil. In the sandy loam soil, a 2-3 mm thick slaking crust was visually observed, but no increased surface hydraulic resistance was detected in 10 out of 11 cases. In the clay soil, a 5-7 mm thick crust was formed by gradual coalescence of the plastic, wet aggregates by rainfall compaction. In 10 out of 15 tests, the steady-state infiltration rate with the crust was lower than the underlying soil saturated hydraulic conductivity, denoting an increased hydraulic resistance of the surface crust. For the clay soil, the mean value of the hydraulic resistance was practically independent of the crust thickness and varied between 78 and 81 min.

Dans un contexte de développement durable, la gestion des sols et des ressources en eau est un enjeu primordial non seulement d’un point de vue environnemental mais aussi socio-économique. L’humidité, la rugosité, la composition et la structure du sol sont des variables clés pour la compréhension et la modélisation des catastrophes naturelles telles que l’érosion, la sécheresse ou les inondations. Pour des sols nus agricoles (très propices au ruissellement), de nombreuses études ont déjà montré le potentiel des données RADAR acquises en bande C pour la cartographie de l'humidité et la rugosité du sol. Cependant l’application de ces méthodes dans un cadre opérationnel était limitée.Dans ce contexte, les travaux de cette thèse présentent un premier volet sur l’analyse de la sensibilité aux états de surface (EDS) du sol du signal en bande X du capteur TerraSAR-X à très haute résolution spatiale et temporelle. Différentes configurations TerraSAR-X ont été analysées et les résultats ont permis de définir les configurations instrumentales optimales pour caractériser chaque paramètre d’EDS du sol. La comparaison de la sensibilité du capteur TerraSAR-X à celle des capteurs en bande C montre que le capteur TerraSAR-X est sans conteste le plus adapté pour estimer et cartographier l’humidité du sol à des échelles fines (50 m²).Le second volet était de développer une méthode permettant d’estimer et de cartographier l’humidité des sols nus agricoles. Dans ce but, les méthodes d'inversion généralement utilisées en bande C ont été testées sur les données en bande X. La précision sur les estimations d’humidité issues de l'algorithme d’inversion du signal TerraSAR-X a été déterminée et l’applicabilité de la méthode sur de nombreux sites d'étude a été testée avec succès. Une chaine de traitements cartographiques allant de la détection des sols nus à l’estimation de l’humidité et ne nécessitant qu’une seule image TerraSAR-X a été développée. Cette chaine innovante de traitements cartographiques « automatique et autonome » devrait permettre d’utiliser les données TerraSAR-X pour cartographier l’humidité du sol en mode opérationnel
In the context of sustainable development, soil and water resources management is a key issue from not only the environmental point of view, but also from a socioeconomic perspective. Soil moisture, roughness, composition, and slaking crusts are some key variables used to understand and model natural hazards, such as erosion, drought and floods. For agricultural bare soils (most subject to runoff), numerous studies have already shown the potential of C-band RADAR data for the mapping of soil moisture and roughness. However, the application of these methods in operational settings remained limited.In this context, the first objective of this thesis was to analyse the sensitivity of X-band TerraSAR-X sensors to soil surface characteristics (SSC) at high spatial and temporal resolutions. Different TerraSAR-X configurations were evaluated and results were used to define the optimal instrumental configuration for the characterization of each SSC parameter. The comparison of TerraSAR-X sensor sensitivity with equivalent levels recorded with the C-band sensor showed that the TerraSAR-X sensor is undoubtedly the most suitable of the two when estimating and mapping soil moisture at a fine scale (50 m²).The second objective of this work was to develop a method to estimate and map soil moisture levels of agricultural bare soil. To achieve this goal, methods that are commonly used to retrieve soil moisture from C-band, have been tested on X-band data. The accuracy of soil moisture estimations using an empirical algorithm was determined, and validated successfully over numerous study sites. A mapping process based uniquely on TerraSAR-X data, both for bare soil detection and for the estimation of soil moisture content, was developed. This innovative chain of « automatic and autonomous» mapping processing steps should enable the utilization of TerraSAR-X data for the mapping of soil moisture levels in operational conditions