Evaporation and energy balance of a wet grassland at Tadham Moor on the Somerset Levels

Wet grasslands are important both for their conservation value and for their important hydrological function. Evaporation is an important component of the water balance of a wetland. Where water is limited rainfall and/or surface (or sub‐surface) inflows are required to balance the summer evaporation and thus become a significant factor in the maintenance and environmental health of a wetland. This study presents an almost complete year of measurements of the water and energy balance of a wet grassland in the Somerset Levels in southwest England. The majority of the radiant energy at this site goes into evaporation. There is a strong seasonality of the controls on evaporation; the roughness length varies by a factor of 10 between winter and summer. The surface resistance to evaporation is low, close to zero, during the winter when the water table is at, or just below the surface. In the summer the water table drops to 80 cm below the surface; there is no sign of soil water stress on the evaporation but a clear effect of the senescence of grass during seed head production and of the subsequent harvest. There is clear evidence that water for evaporation is provided by the drainage ditches through sub‐surface flow. Standard evaporation formulae—such as the Penman‐Monteith equation with constant and standard parameters—provide a reasonable simulation of the total evaporation at this site, although they miss some of the seasonal detail. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seasonal rainfall–runoff relationships in a lowland forested watershed in the southeastern USA

Hydrological processes of lowland watersheds of the southern USA are not well understood compared to a hilly landscape due to their unique topography, soil compositions, and climate. This study describes the seasonal relationships between rainfall patterns and runoff (sum of storm flow and base flow) using 13 years (1964–1976) of rainfall and stream flow data for a low‐gradient, third‐order forested watershed. It was hypothesized that runoff–rainfall ratios (R/P) are smaller during the dry periods (summer and fall) and greater during the wet periods (winter and spring). We found a large seasonal variability in event R/P potentially due to differences in forest evapotranspiration that affected seasonal soil moisture conditions. Linear regression analysis results revealed a significant relationship between rainfall and runoff for wet (r² = 0·68; p < 0·01) and dry (r² = 0·19; p = 0·02) periods. Rainfall‐runoff relationships based on a 5‐day antecedent precipitation index (API) showed significant (r² = 0·39; p < 0·01) correspondence for wet but not (r² = 0·02; p = 0·56) for dry conditions. The same was true for rainfall‐runoff relationships based on 30‐day API (r² = 0·39; p < 0·01 for wet and r² = 0·00; p = 0·79 for dry). Stepwise regression analyses suggested that runoff was controlled mainly by rainfall amount and initial soil moisture conditions as represented by the initial flow rate of a storm event. Mean event R/P were higher for the wet period (R/P = 0·33), and the wet antecedent soil moisture condition based on 5‐day (R/P = 0·25) and 30‐day (R/P = 0·26) prior API than those for the dry period conditions. This study suggests that soil water status, i.e. antecedent soil moisture and groundwater table level, is important besides the rainfall to seasonal runoff generation in the coastal plain region with shallow soil argillic horizons. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Soil saturation index of salt marshes subjected to spring‐neap tides: a new variable for describing marsh soil aeration condition

Organized spatial distribution of plants (plant zonation) in salt marshes has been linked to the soil aeration condition in the rhizosphere through simplistic tidal inundation parameters. Here, a soil saturation index (ratio of saturation period to tidal period at a soil depth) is introduced to describe the soil aeration condition. This new index captures the effects of not only the tidal inundation period and frequency but also the flow dynamics of groundwater in the marsh soil. One‐dimensional numerical models based on saturated flow with the Boussinesq approximations and a two‐dimensional variably saturated flow model were developed to explore the behaviour of this new soil aeration variable under the influence of spring‐neap tides. Simulations revealed two characteristic zones of soil aeration across the salt marsh: a relatively well aerated near‐creek zone and a poorly aerated interior zone. In the near‐creek zone, soils undergo periodic wetting and drying as the groundwater table fluctuates throughout the spring‐neap cycle. In the interior, the soil remains largely water saturated except for neap tide periods when limited drainage occurs. Although such a change of soil aeration condition has been observed in previous numerical simulations, the soil saturation index provides a clear delineation of the zones that are separated by an ‘inflexion point’ on the averaged index curve. The results show how the saturation index represents the effects of soil properties, tidal parameters and marsh platform elevation on marsh soil aeration. Simulations of these combined effects have not been possible with traditional tidal inundation parameters. The saturation index can be easily derived using relatively simple models based on five non‐dimensional variables. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fuzzy logic model approaches to daily pan evaporation estimation in western Turkey / Estimation de l’évaporation journalière du bac dans l’Ouest de la Turquie par des modèles à base de logique floue

Abstract

Abstract Evaporation is one of the fundamental elements in the hydrological cycle, which affects the yield of river basins, the capacity of reservoirs, the consumptive use of water by crops and the yield of underground supplies. In general, there are two approaches in the evaporation estimation, namely, direct and indirect. The indirect methods such as the Penman and Priestley-Taylor methods are based on meteorological variables, whereas the direct methods include the class A pan evaporation measurement as well as others such as class GGI-3000 pan and class U pan. The major difficulty in using a class A pan for the direct measurements arises because of the subsequent application of coefficients based on the measurements from a small tank to large bodies of open water. Such difficulties can be accommodated by fuzzy logic reasoning and models as alternative approaches to classical evaporation estimation formulations were applied to Lake Egirdir in the western part of Turkey. This study has three objectives: to develop fuzzy models for daily pan evaporation estimation from measured meteorological data, to compare the fuzzy models with the widely-used Penman method, and finally to evaluate the potential of fuzzy models in such applications. Among the measured meteorological variables used to implement the models of daily pan evaporation prediction are the daily observations of air and water temperatures, sunshine hours, solar radiation, air pressure, relative humidity and wind speed. Comparison of the classical and fuzzy logic models shows a better agreement between the fuzzy model estimations and measurements of daily pan evaporation than the Penman method.     

Modelling the impacts of subsurface drainage on surface runoff and sediment yield in the Le Sueur Watershed,Minnesota, USA

Abstract

Tile drainage influences infiltration and surface runoff and is thus an important factor in the erosion process. Tile drainage reduces surface runoff, but questions abound on its influence on sediment transport through its dense network and into the stream network. The impact of subsurface tiling on upland erosion rates in the Le Sueur River watershed, USA, was assessed using the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model. Six different scenarios of tile drainage with varying drainage coefficient and management type (no till and autumn mulch-till) were evaluated. The mean annual surface runoff depth, soil loss rate and sediment delivery ratio (SDR) for croplands, based on a 30-year simulation for the watershed with untiled autumn mulch-till (Scenario 1), were estimated to be 83.5 mm, 0.27 kg/m² and 86.7%, respectively; on no-till management systems (Scenario 4), the respective results were 72.3 mm, 0.06 kg/m² and 88.2%. Tile drains reduced surface runoff, soil loss and SDR estimates for Scenario 1 by, on average, 14.5, 8.1 and 7.9%, respectively; and for Scenario 4 by an estimated 31.5, 22.1 and 20.2%, respectively. The impact of tile drains on surface runoff, soil loss and SDR was greater under the no-till management system than under the autumn mulch-till management system. Comparison of WEPP outputs with those of the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) showed differences between the two methods.

Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz

Citation Maalim, F.K. and Melesse. A.M., 2013. Modelling impacts of subsurface drainage on surface runoff and sediment yield in the Le Sueur Watershed in Minnesota, USA. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 58 (3), 570–586.     

Microtopography,water storage and flow patterns in a fine‐textured soil under agricultural use

Agricultural use of soils implies tillage and often compaction and therefore influences processes on soil surface and affects infiltration of water into the subsoil. Although many studies on soil surface processes or flow patterns in soils exist, works relating both are rare in literature. We did two tracer experiments with Brilliant Blue FCF on a tilled and compacted plot and a non‐tilled one to investigate water storage on the soil surface during simulated rainfall and changes of soil microtopography, to analyse the associated flow patterns in the soil and to relate both to tillage and compaction. Our results show that storage was larger on the tilled and compacted plot than on the non‐tilled one. After tillage, transport processes above the plough pan were partly disconnected from those underneath because macropores were disrupted and buried by the tillage operation. However, preferential flow along cracks occurred on both plots and the macropores buried below the tillage pan still functioned as preferential flow paths. Therefore, we conclude that the studied soil is susceptible to deep vertical solute propagation at dry conditions when cracks are open, irrespective of tillage and compaction. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

STUDIES ON ENVIRONMENTAL BACKGROUND VALUES IN CHINA

An investigation on environmental background values was made in an area of about 1,140,000 km2, which included temperate and subtropical zones of China. The environmental background values of 142 soil environment units, 18 main soil types, 87 surface water environment units, 8 aquatic organism environment units and 20 underground water environment units were obtained. The rules, causes and effecting factors of regional differentiation of the environmental background values were deduced from over 200,000 various data.     

Assessing the impact of the hydraulic properties of a crusted soil on overland flow modelling at the field scale

Soil surface crusts are widely reported to favour Hortonian runoff, but are not explicitly represented in most rainfall‐runoff models. The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of soil surface crusts on infiltration and runoff modelling at two spatial scales, i.e. the local scale and the plot scale. At the local scale, two separate single ring infiltration experiments are undertaken. The first is performed on the undisturbed soil, whereas the second is done after removal of the soil surface crust. The HYDRUS 2D two‐dimensional vertical infiltration model is then used in an inverse modelling approach, first to estimate the soil hydraulic properties of the crust and the subsoil, and then the effective hydraulic properties of the soil represented as a single uniform layer. The results show that the crust hydraulic conductivity is 10 times lower than that of the subsoil, thus illustrating the limiting role the crust has on infiltration. Moving up to the plot scale, a rainfall‐runoff model coupling the Richards equation to a transfer function is used to simulate Hortonian overland flow hydrographs. The previously calculated hydraulic properties are used, and a comparison is undertaken between a single‐layer and a double‐layer representation of the crusted soil. The results of the rainfall‐runoff model show that the soil hydraulic properties calculated at the local scale give acceptable results when used to model runoff at the plot scale directly, without any numerical calibration. Also, at the plot scale, no clear improvement of the results can be seen when using a double‐layer representation of the soil in comparison with a single homogeneous layer. This is due to the hydrological characteristics of Hortonian runoff, which is triggered by a rainfall intensity exceeding the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the soil surface. Consequently, the rainfall‐runoff model is more sensitive to rainfall than to the subsoil's hydrodynamic properties. Therefore, the use of a double‐layer soil model to represent runoff on a crusted soil does not seem necessary, as the increase of precision in the soil discretization is not justified by a better performance of the model. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A theory of pressure sensor performance in snow

A theory of pressure sensor response in snow is derived and used to examine the sources of measurement errors in snow water equivalent (SWE) pressure sensors. Measurement errors in SWE are caused by differences in the compressibility of the pressure sensor and the adjacent snow layer, which produces a shear stress along the perimeter of the sensor. When the temperature at the base of the snow cover equals 0 °C, differences in the snowmelt rate between the snow–SWE sensor interface and the adjacent snow–soil interface may also produce a shear stress along the sensor's perimeter. This shear stress perturbs the pressure field over the sensor, producing SWE measurement errors. Snow creep acts to reduce shear stresses along the SWE sensor's perimeter at a rate that is inversely proportional to the snow viscosity. For sustained periods of differential snowmelt, a difference in the mass of snow over the sensor compared with the surrounding soil will develop, producing additional permanent errors in SWE measurements. The theory indicates that SWE pressure sensor performance can be improved by designing a sensor with a high Young's modulus (low compressibility), low aspect ratio, large diameter and thermal properties that match those of the surrounding soil. Simulations of SWE pressure sensor errors using the theory are in close agreement with observed errors and may provide a means to correct historical SWE measurements for use in hydrological hindcast or climate studies. Published in 2003 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of a hedge surrounding bottomland on seasonal soil‐water movement

The influence of a hedge surrounding bottomland on soil‐water movement along the hillslope was studied on a plot scale for 28 months. The study was based on the comparison of two transects, one with a hedge, the other without, using mainly a dense grid of tensiometers. The influence of the bottomland hedge was located in the area where tree roots were developed, several metres upslope from the hedge, and could be observed both in the saturated and non‐saturated zone, from May to December. The hedge induced a high rate of soil drying, because of the high evaporative capacity of the trees. We evaluated that water uptake by the hedge during the growing season was at least 100 mm higher than without a hedge. This increased drying rate led to a delayed rewetting of the soils upslope from the hedge in autumn, of about 1 month compared with the situation without a hedge. Several consequences of this delayed rewetting are expected: a delay in the return of subsurface transfer from the hillslope to the riparian zone, a buffering effect of hedges on floods, already observed at the catchment scale, and an increased residence time of pollutants. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.