Soil Water

Chapter 5
Water Potential
Components
Matric potential (tension, suction, -pressure)
Capillarity

Soil Moisture Characteristic Curve

Water Flow
Saturated
Unsaturated
Vapor

Plant-Available Water
Terms
Factors affecting
Energy of water affected by

Gravity
Pressure
Attraction by soil solids
Solutes
Reference

Pure water at atmospheric pressure at

specified elevation
Energy per unit quantity of water

Water potential
The 2 kinds of quantities commonly used as a basis for water potential are
volume and weight (not mass). Energy per unit volume (E / V = [F x L]/ [A x L] =
F / A = P) has the dimensions of pressure, whereas energy per unit weight, a force
(E / W = F x L / F = L) has the dimension, length. Water potential in pressure is
commonly used with biological systems, and water potential as length is used
in engineering.
Gravitational Potential
Higher potential, higher in the gravitational
field, no, so water moves downhill.
Pressure Potential

Higher

Here
or
Here
Obviously, down there.
P = 2/ R
The pressure differential, air > water,
is given by the above expression, where
is surface tension and R is radius of the
sphere. Notice the bubble is concave into
the water.
Matric Potential
Attraction by
soil solids
reduces
water potential

- relative to
atmospheric
pressure
So, concave into water film means the
pressure in the water is < pressure in air.

Unsaturated soil
Osmotic Potential

Solutes reduce
water potential
relative to
pure water
Water enters the osmometer through a
semipermeable membrane and rises in
the tube. The top of the water in the beaker
is at atmospheric pressure (call it zero net
pressure) but at the same level inside the
osmometer, there is a standing column of
water. The negative osmotic potential just
balances the positive pressure potential.
Total Potential

TP = GP + (PP or MP) + OP
There can be only positive pressure potential (below a free water surface, or water
table, in saturated soil) or negative matric potential (unsaturated soil), not both.
Matric potential is negative pressure, or tension.

In the absence of a semipermeable membrane, only gravitational potential and

either pressure or matric potential affect water flow.
Attraction to surfaces ..
due to adhesion and
..
cohesion

H-bonding
..

These properties of water

..
are responsible for its
cohesion unto itself and its
adhesion to hydrophilic
surfaces. So, when some
water molecules stick to a
surface, they bring their
Dipole interaction buddies along.
Responsible for capillarity Yes, like with capillarity. This
is a derivation of the capillary
rise equation. Note height of
rise, h, is
Ptop = -2/ R inversely
related to

Pbot = gh radius of tube,

R. is density
of water and
g is acceleration
Ptop + P bot =0 due to gravity.

h = 2/ (gR)
Pressure outside the capillary tube at the
water surface is zero and also inside the tube
because the negative pressure in the water
at the top of the tube is just balanced by the
positive pressure of the water column.
Capillary bundle
model for
soil water
Soil physicists have used
capillary tubes of different
radii as models for soil pores
to explain water movement in
soil. Note that soil pores of a
particular radius are filled with
water only to the height that
corresponding capillary tubes
are filled.

Of course soil pores are very

short, not long capillaries.
Here are two
capillary pores,
one with a small
radius and one
with a larger radius.
When tension is
applied to the
bottom of each, the
larger one empties
first because it cant
withstand as great
of tension as the
smaller capillary.
The same thing
holds for water in
soil pores. Consider
the next slide.
Relationship between matric potential and
water content --soil moisture characteristic

The decrease in
water content of a
soil as tension on it
increases is due to
pores draining, first
the largest and lastly
the smallest. There
is a continuum of pore
sizes so this decrease
is smooth.

Matric Potential
These dots are
supposed to be
pore size distribu-
tions. So, which
would be the sand
and which would
be the loam and
clay? And what
would be the effect
on the soil moisture
characteristic curve?
Shape depends on texture and structure

Clay or
Sand

Besides the rapid decrease in water content with increasing tension (more
and more negative matric potential), you might suspect the pink soil to be
the sand also based on the lower water content at saturation (recall, generally
higher bulk density, thus, lower total porosity, in sand than clay).
Good structure or compacted

Same idea holds here.

Its a matter of pore
size distribution
compact a soil and you
decrease total porosity
and reduce the
number of
large pores.
How to Measure Soil Water

Content

Tension
Content

Gravimetric

Neutron Probe

TDR
Youve done gravimetric. Its very
accurate but destructive. Attenuation of
fast neutrons by interaction with H nuclei
(calibrate the instrument at different know soil water contents) can be related
to water content. Time domain reflectometry is newer technology that relates
changes in dielectric constant to water content. Non-destructive methods.
Tension (Matric Potential)

Tensiometer
Simple device consisting of rigid tube
with a porous ceramic cup on the end.
Fill with water, cap and stick in the soil.
The greater the tension in the soil water,
the greater the tension in the tube.
The latter is read by vacuum gage or
pressure transducer. Works fine at
lower tensions, i.e., not dry soil.
Water Movement

Saturated

Unsaturated

Vapor Phase

Always moves from higher to lower potential

 Darcys Law
These considerations allow you to sort of derive
this. Obviously, volumetric flow (e.g., cm3 h-1) is
directly related to cross
sectional area.

Everything else the

same (soil, length of
it and area), there is
greater flow when
there is more standing
water but there will always be some
minimum flow provided you add water.
Thus, flow is proportional to water depth. However, flow is inversely related to
length of flow through soil resistance.
At this point, weve Q is proportional to A x (D + C) / L. At zero depth of water
on the surface of saturated soil of different lengths of flow, there is the same flow,
and the only way this can be the case is if the unknown constant, C, is actually L.
Thus, Q is proportional to A x (D + L) / L but it is going to vary with the soil, i.e.,
with the pore size distribution, bigger pores, faster flow and conversely.
 Sand

Are the conductivities, Ksat,

the same?

Clay
 If K = 1 cm h-1,
whats the flow?

Q = K A ([D + L] / L) Darcys Law

Unsaturated Flow This is the typical case, unsaturated.
Here, despite no difference in gravitational
Potential, water moves from left to right.
This, of course,
is due to the
difference in
matric potential.

Wet Dry
More complex than saturated flow
Application of Darcys
Law is not straightforward
for unsaturated soil. A
big issue is that conduc-
tivity decreases as
water content decreases.
This is because the area
for flow decreases as the
soil dries and the path
that water moves becomes
longer. More importantly,
flow is restricted to smaller
and smaller pores, through
which water moves slower.
Decreasing Water Content
Why water
goes to roots
Like is always the case
everywhere and every time,
it goes down a potential
gradient, from higher to lower.
Vapor Phase Movement

From higher to lower partial pressure

So, does water vapor spontaneously move

Hot Cold Well, isnt the vapor pressure of water

higher above relatively hot water than
cold water? Dont solutes reduce water
Non-saline Salty vapor pressure? In fact, the soil may
become so dry that adhesion of film water
to soil solids actually reduces water
Wet Dry vapor pressure.
If you let a saturated soil drain, it drains fast at first but slows. This is
the behavior of a clay and a sand. The early thinkers on the matter
concluded that water was draining under the influence of gravity and since
drainage was so fast, that portion of the maximum water content was not
really available to plants. So, gravitational water was plant-unavailable.

Field Capacities of a Clay and Sand

Time
Regardless of soil type, the tension of soil water when this gravitational
water has drained is about - 0.2 or - 0.3 or - 0.33 bar (depending on authority).
Plant-Available Water and Related

Gravitational
Water
This is a soil
moisture
characteristic
curve, no?

-0.2 bar, Field Capacity

Matric Potential
Gravitational Plants are goners
when they
cant uptake
water against
the tension at
Plant-Available which it is held
by soil solids.
They permanently
wilt and the
associated
Unavailable tension is
about -15 bar.

So, plant-
available water
is in between, no?

-0.2 Bar -15 Bar, Wilting Point

Hygroscopic water
Texture Affects Plant-Available Water

Plant available
water depends
on texture.

Field capacity
and wilting
points are
determined from
moisture
characteristic
curves.

Max at about
silt loam.
Organic Matter Affects Plant-Available Water

Organic
matter is good
in this way, too,
no?