Evaporation Process in Soil Surface Containing Calcic Nodules on the Northern Loess Plateau of China by Simulated Experiments

Soil containing calcic nodules is widely present on the northern Loess Plateau of China owing to soil genesis under local climate conditions. In most studies, little attention is payed to the effect of calcic nodules on soil evaporation and ecoenvironment, resulting in inaccurate evaporation estimation in this kind of soil and further improper field water management measures and irrigation effects. In this paper, soil column experiments were conducted in order to investigate evaporation process in soil containing calcic nodules and the effect of calcic nodules on soil evaporation was determined. The results indicated that evaporation reduction was positively related to calcic nodule content (CNC = mass of calcic nodules/total mass), and could be estimated by the experiential equation: E_soil = E₀ (1 – 0.4 CNC) (E_soil = actual evaporation, E₀ = theory evaporation in soil without calcic nodules). When CNC was below 0.2, the impact could be neglected. While, as CNC exceeded 0.2, the impact needed to be considered during soil evaporation estimation. As CNC reached 0.5, soil evaporation could be reduced by 7.5 mm, accounting for around 10% of the total soil water. Water balance calculation in soil columns showed that water absorbed by calcic nodules was partially available to evaporation. Water available to evaporation was positively related to CNC, and this water could not exceed 63% of the water absorbed by calcic nodules. Generally, evaporation behavior was dominated by calcic nodule quantity and its water absorption. These results provide new ideas for irrigation measures in arid areas of the globe.