Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Original Article
Department of Soil Science University of Uyo, P.M. B.1017, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. 2 Department of Animal Science University of Uyo, P.M. B.1017, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, 3 Department of Soil Science University of Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria. Accepted: 16.08.2012 Published:06.09.2012
Received: 05.08.2012
Abstract Four locations of sand, loam, Laterite and black-earth were chosen to best represent the area of interest and organic materials of chicken dropping, cow and goat dung were applied to the soil in order to evaluate the effect of animal manure inclusion (at 20,40 & 60 percent to soil) on soil physical indices and heat flow within the soil system. There was minimal soil disturbance during installation. Soil profile and surface conditions were carefully reconstructed with four different levels of organic materials to soil proportion; 1:5, 2: 5, 4:5 and control. And soils were repacked to the original bulk density such that there was no significant change in thermal regime of the soil. Generally, the trend of thermal conductivity for different soils followed the order of sand > loam > clay > black earth (soil from dump site). The changes between 20 and 50 % were not significant for goat dung but significantly different in cow dung. When chicken dropping was added to the soils at different rates, 20 % inclusion was similar to the conductivity of the control; further increase in the rate significantly (P< 0.05) reduced the soils conductivity. In as much as the dark colour soil is due to dominant organic material, the temperature of these soils is greatly affected by the relatively high specific heat and low conductivity of a given organic material.
Keywords: Soil Temperature; Thermal Conductivity; Heat Capacity; Heat Flow; Organic Material.
INTRODUCTION Soil temperature is a very important soil property that has direct effect on plant. It varies in time and in space and is a factor of primary importance in determining the rate and direction of soil physical processes and of energy and mass exchange with the atmosphere. The amount of heat reaching the soil from heat source depends upon the heat intensity and absorption of the heat by the soil. Thermal conductivity according to Hillel (1982) is the amount of heat transferred through a unit area in a unit time under a unit temperature gradient. Soil depth and mass influence heat behaviour, regulate physical soil protection, and affect nutrient pool size. Soil temperature can affects the nitrogen (N) and carbon ( C) content rate of decomposition, nutrients availability and plant productivity (David and Janssen 2006). While organic material in the soil serves as a nutrient reservoir that can slowly be incorporated into the mineral soil by decomposition (Hungerford et.al. 1990). Biological process such as N mineralization can also be enhanced following heat transfer (Ketterings et al. 2000). The objectives of this research were to evaluate the changes in soils physical and chemical characteristics and to assess the interaction of heat flow in an effort to understand how the transports of matter and energy occur simultaneously and independent in the soil.
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GD GD GD
Specific Heat Capacity-Organic Material Interactions The interaction of specific heat capacity x organic material was established by plotting. A study (Figure 1) of specific heat capacity x organic material means of different soils combined into a single graph showed that significant high specific heat capacity ( 10-3calcm-3) were observed in Black earth before organic material applications, also when 20 % chicken dropping was added to Loam and 60 % in sand soil types. The specific heat capacity pattern from those other combinations were below 35 10-3calcm-3 even in the free state. Despite the sudden increase in specific heat capacity of loam on addition of 20 % chicken dropping, subsequent increase inclusion of dropping reduced specific heat more the 50 %. The data from black earth support the hypothesis of low heat capacity of peat soil due to high proportion of aeration pores. Soils Thermal Conductivity The amount of heat reaching the soil from heat source depends upon the heat intensity and absorption of the heat by the soil. Thermal conductivity according to Hillel (1982) is the amount of heat transferred through a unit area in a unit time under a unit temperature gradient. The temperature of soil is determined to a considerable extent by its own properties .It depends upon factors responsible for differences in intensity of absorption of heat such as colour.
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Sand 9.455 7.848 8.667 40.446 16.604 1.962 1.529 4.667 2.719 2.825 2.167 7.584
Loam 14.463 13.596 7.259 27.843 15.790 27.193 7.259 11.137 15.196 7.769 4.839 27.843
Laterite 4.473 8.486 2.417 7.656 5.758 4.629 3.491 10.208 6.109 4.629 3.491 15.312
Mean 12.271 8.431 5.236 19.819 11.439 9.963 3.936 7.455 7.118 4.889 3.924 14.350 7.721
Another factor is differences in specific heat of the soil such as compaction and moisture content and next is variation in heat conductivity. Therefore, these results provide a semi-quantitative interpretation of observed influences of soil surface condition, including the presence of organic materials on the soils thermal regime. At this point, attention of this study is called to differences in heat conductivity resulting from addition of organic material at different proportions. The significance of the heat conductivity of various soils is shown by data of Table 2 and Figures 2-8.
GD GD
Mean 4.192 13.484 7.811 5.399 CD= cow dung, GD = goat dung , CH = chicken dropping
Application of cow dung to soils results in a progressively increasing thermal conductivity in sand from 7.848 (10-6 cal/cm/sec0C) at 20 % inclusion to 8.667 and 40.446 (10-6 cal/cm/sec0C) at 40 and 60 % inclusions respectively. Relatively, high amount of heat (more than in 20 and 40 % inclusions) was conducted in sand when there was no addition of this organic material. Thermal conductivity in Loam, Laterite and Black earth were irregularly distributed with cow dung application. These irregular patterns of conductivity emphasize the importance
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Depending on organic material quantity and soil type, 60% chicken dropping to soil reduced thermal conductivity from 9.455 (10-6 cal/cm/sec0C) to 4.667 (10-6 cal/cm/sec0C) in sandy soil. Whereas 40% inclusion of droppings further reduced heat conductivity to 1.529 (10 -6cal/cm/sec0C) and 1.962(10-6 cal/cm/sec0C) with 20% dropping. The result in loam revealed that 20 % dropping increased the conductivity to 27.193 (10-6 cal/cm/sec0C), and suddenly dropped to 7.259 (10-6 cal/cm/sec0C) at 40 % inclusion and to 11.137 (10 -6 cal/cm/sec0C) on addition of 60 % chicken dropping to the soil. Changes in thermal conductivity for Laterite at different chicken dropping compositions show significant high thermal conductivity at 60 % dropping and changes at 20 % and 40 % inclusions were not significantly different from the thermal conductivity before addition. Results for black earth soil type without chicken manure showed thermal conductivity of 20.692 (10-6 cal/cm/sec0C) and significant conductivity decline during the manure addition at various proportion Thermal conductivity of goat dung dropped in all the soils at 40 % inclusion. Increase in thermal conductivity was observed in loamy and lateritic soils at 60 % addition of dung. Comparison of Thermal Conductivity in Different Soils As shown in Figure 2, thermal conductivity of goat dung at 20 % inclusion was significantly lower than the control and 60 % treatments in sand. The treatment of 60 % showed highly significant thermal conductivity followed by control in loam soil. There was no difference in thermal conductivity of Lateritic soil except at 60 % inclusion. The reverse was true in Black earth soil, thermal conductivity declined immediately as goat dung was applied. Furthermore,
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors thanks BGI Resources laboratory LTD PHC. For providing the needed equipments and analysis of data and Mrs. May Innih Dennis for her valuable comments. REFERENCES
Bristow KL, Kluitenberg GJ, Goding CJ, Fitzgerald TS, 2001. "A small multi-needle probe for measuring soil thermal properties, water content and electrical conductivity". Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 31 (3): 265280. doi:10.1016/S0168-1699(00)00186-1 Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_thermal_properties Daniel Hillel, 1980. Fundamental of Soil physics. Academic Press, New York. Davidson EA, and Janssen IA. 2006. Temperature sensitivity of soil carbon decomposition and feedbacks to climate change. Nature 440, 165173. Day PR, 1965. Particle fractionation and Particle size analysis. Pages 454567 in C. A. Black (ed) method of analysis: No. 9 Monogr. Ser. Part 1 American Society of Agronomy Enwezor WO, Udo EJ, Ayorade WA, Adepuju J, and Chude VO, 1990. A Review of Soil and Fertilizer use Research in Nigeria. In: Literature Review on Soil Fertility Investigation in Nigeria. Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources., Lagos, pp.53-100 Fritchen LI, and Gay LW, 1979. Environmental instrumentation. SpringerVerlag,New York. Hungerford RD, Harrington MG, Frandsen WH, Ryan RC, and Niehoff JG, 1991. Influence of fire no factors that affect site productivity. Symposium on management and productivity of western Montana forest soils. Ketterings QM, Bigham JM, Laperche V, 2000. Changes in soil mineralogy and texture caused by slash-and-burn fires in Sumatra, Indonesia. Soil Science Society of America Journal 64: 11081117 Udo EJ, and Sobulo SA, 1981. Acid sands of southern Nigeria. Soil Science Society of Nigeria spec. Publication Monogr. No. 1: 615 Valzano IP, Greene RSB, Murphy BW, 1997. Direct effect of Stubble Burning in a direct drill tillage system. Soil and Tillage Research 142: 209-219 Walkey A, and IA. Black, 1934. An Examination of the method for determining soil organic matter a proposed modification of the chromic acid titration methods. Soil Science 37: 29-38
CONCLUSION Results from the study have shown that organic manure inclusion at any rate significantly dampen heat transfer in black-earth, whereas improved heat conductivity was noticed in soils fortified with animal manure. Organic amendments are require to improving the thermal regime and physico-chemical indices of the studied soils (except black earth). The optimum thermal conductivity of 8.66 x 10-6 cal/cm/sec/0C was achieved at 40 % CD inclusion in sandy soil and this will greatly improve germination and the growth of arable crops grown on acid sands. Therefore, 20-40 % organic amendments is recommended for lateritic soil as these will ameliorate heavy fine particles and hence improved the production capacity of this soil .
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