Hydrodynamic response of a loam soil after wetting with different methods

Different points in a field can be wetted with different natural or artificial rainfall amounts and intensities. Therefore, a non-uniform soil wetting could occur during short-term monitoring of soil hydrodynamic parameters and its global effect on soil characterization is not easily predictable. For an initially dry loam soil, a sequence of three beerkan infiltration runs was performed at fixed sampling points in a period of two weeks. Immediately after the first beerkan run, the soil was perturbed by adding an additional water volume differing with the sampling point by the amount of water (0, 100 or 227 mm) and the application methodology (rainfall simulation, another beerkan run). As compared with the initial conditions, the soil infiltration parameters (mean, initial and final infiltration rates; constant of the Horton's infiltration model) decreased by 2.9–4.3 times after wetting. A decrease of these parameters by 1.6–2.3 times remained detectable at the end of the sampling period, even if the soil likely returned to wetness conditions close to the initial ones. Relative variability decreased too (coefficients of variation = 52–135%, depending on the parameter, for the initial runs and 36–95% for the final ones). Nevertheless, a link was recognized between the infiltration parameters determined in the subsequent runs of the sequence. The correlation was stronger when the initial runs were compared with the last runs (coefficients of determination, R2 = 0.104–0.749, depending on the parameter; R >0 at P = 0.05 in all cases) than with those performed immediately after the intermediate wetting (R2 varying from a non-significant value of 0.059 to significant 0.196–0.211 values). The hydrodynamic response of a disturbed soil appears overall related to that of the initially undisturbed soil even if the disturbing agent is not exactly the same over the sampled area. Performing other investigations by characterizing the antecedent soil conditions in more detail could help to improve interpretation and modelling of hydrological processes by a more realistic description of temporal variability of soil infiltration parameters.