Soil moisture dynamics in coastal savanna soils in the tropics under different soil management practices

Abstract

Soil moisture is important for crop cultivation and its adequacy to meet crop-water requirements is determined by the degree of soil management practised and the quantity of water applied to the soil. This study investigates soil moisture dynamics on three plots: Bare (clean, weeds removed), Weedy (kept weedy), and Mulched (cleared of weeds and fully covered with grass mulch) during rainy and dry periods at the Teaching and Research Farm at the University of Cape Coast, in the coastal savanna zone of Ghana. Soil moisture dynamics under different levels of soil compaction were also studied. A Massey Ferguson tractor (MF265) was used to compact the soil at various levels by making 0, 1, 5, 9 and 13 passes. During both the rainy and the dry periods, moisture retention in the soil under bare, weedy and mulched plots increased with depth. During the rainy period, the mean soil moisture retention was in the order: Mulched > Weedy > Bare at both 0–20 cm and 20–40 cm depths. Within a 7–day period, soil moisture measurements from a day after heavy rainfall (intensity > 7 mm h^?1) gave mean moisture losses of 2.7, 4.1 and 3.9% for the Bare, Weedy and Mulched plots, respectively. During the dry period, however, the mean soil moisture retention was of the order: Mulched > Bare > Weedy at both 0–20 cm and 20–40 cm depths. Mean moisture loss during a 7–day dry period was 4.5, 2.9 and 3.4% for the Bare, Weedy and Mulched plots, respectively. Under different levels of soil compaction, the mean moisture retention in the soil increased from 8.3% at 0 pass to 17.8% at 13 passes within the 0–20 cm depth, whilst it decreased from 13.3 to 5.9% from 0 to 13 passes, respectively, within the 20–40 cm depth. It was realized that at less than two passes, the mean soil moisture retention within the 0–20 cm depth was less than the mean moisture retention within the 20–40 cm depth, but the converse happened for more than two passes. The study showed that mulching the soil surface helped to retain enough soil moisture during both the rainy and the dry seasons. Also, soil with high sand content required some sort of soil compaction in order to retain enough moisture at the crop rooting zone.     

Robust Regulation of Alkalinity in Highly Uncertain Continuous Anaerobic Digestion Processes

In this paper, a multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) model‐based robust control scheme is proposed for the indirect control of both total alkalinity and the ratio (intermediate alkalinity)/(total alkalinity) by regulating volatile fatty acid concentrations and strong ions concentration, while guaranteeing the so‐called operational stability in anaerobic digestion (AD) processes. The proposed MIMO regulator is an adaptive controller derived from an AD model which incorporates the physicochemical equilibrium of the system as well as the use of a robust interval observer to estimate key process bounds that are used in the computation of the control efforts. Numerical simulations were carried out for a number of operating conditions under the most uncertain scenarios. Results showed that the proposed multivariable control law is able to recover the system stability around a pre‐determined set point in the face of parameter uncertainty and load disturbances.     

强夯法处理某变电站红砂岩填土地基的试验研究

通过对某变电站红砂岩填土地基的强夯试验研究,验证了强夯设计参数,为基础设计提供了依据,并对红砂岩地区采用强夯地基处理技术进行了探讨,供类似工程的设计、施工及检测借鉴参考。     

酒泉盆地营尔凹陷异常高压形成机理

酒泉盆地营尔凹陷下白垩统砂泥岩普遍发育超压。通过对地层压实特征、黏土矿物转化及有机质演化特征的分析,揭示了凹陷超压形成的机理。结果表明:①营尔凹陷纵向上发育常压带、浅层超压带、过渡带和深层超压带4个压力带,超压带内具有明显的泥岩密度降低、电阻率减小和声波时差增大的欠压实特征,表明不均衡压实作用是形成该区超压的主要原因;②凹陷内发育3个蒙脱石向伊利石转化带,第一迅速转化带对应于浅层超压带,第二迅速转化带对应于深层超压带,反映黏土矿物转化与凹陷超压有一定的联系;③深层有机质演化程度较高(镜质体反射率Ro>0.6%),与浅层超压带相比,生烃作用对深层超压带的超压贡献更大。由此认为,营尔凹陷的下白垩统地层超压是不均衡压实作用、黏土矿物脱水作用和生烃作用共同影响的结果,并且隆起带和洼陷带的成因机理有所差异。     

山区高填方地基处理简介

通过对山区高填方常用的地基处理方法进行介绍,阐述山区高填方的地基处理设计、施工、检测需要注意的问题,最后通过三个山区高填方案例,总结了采用分层碾压法、分层强夯法是山区高填方地基处理比较有效理想的地基处理方法。     

Shear strength of compacted soil: effects on splash erosion by single water drops

The persistence of soil compaction, caused by farmers' vehicles (tractors wheelings) during the dry season, can affect splash distribution and soil erosion so that surface flow starts at an earlier stage than between the wheelings. To investigate the effects of soil compaction on splash distribution, a dry clayey agricultural soil was compacted in steel cups with a hydraulic piston, and the shear strength was measured with a fall‐cone penetrometer. Two cups were compacted in the same manner, using one to measure the shear strength and the second for splash erosion measurements. A laboratory splash board of 1 m radius, divided into 13 concentric compartments, was used to collect the splashed particles. The water drop diameter used was 4·9 mm falling onto a soil splash cup of 50·2 cm² area from 8 m height with a terminal velocity of 8·8 m s^?1. The spatial distribution of the splashed particles, for different soil compactions, fitted the fundamental splash distribution function (FSDF) model better than the exponential function. The shapes of the curves of this function demonstrated the importance of the source area size; the smaller the cup diameter the better the spatial distribution is expressed by an exponential function. In addition, variability in soil surface conditions contributes to variation in splash characteristics. Detachment rates and average radial distance followed second degree relationships in terms of shear strength. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pyrite–anhydrite–magnetite–pyroxene-type deposits and coexisting hydrothermal fluids in Mesozoic volcanic basins, Yangtze River Valley, China

Anhydrite–pyrite–magnetite–pyroxene–type deposits occur in the Mesozoic volcanic areas of the Middle–Lower Yangtze Valley in China. These deposits are hosted in alkaline basaltic rocks, and are generally accompanied by melanocratic and leucocratic alteration zones, both of which are characterized by a distinct vertical zonation pattern. Investigation of these zones indicates that the chemical compositions of solid solutions and polymorphs of various minerals vary spatially in the alteration profile, upwards from the lowest level, and outwards from the center.Here we report a case study on the Luohe deposit. In the melanocratic-alteration zone, the composition of magnetite (including trace elements Ti, V, Mg, Mn), pyroxene (Mg, Fe²⁺, Fe³⁺, Al₂O₃), plagioclase (An_xAb_{1 − x}), pyrite (Co, Ni) and apatite (F, CeO₂ + Y₂O₃ + La₂O₃) changes with depth. The isotherms of hydrothermal fluids determined from fluid inclusion data, including homogenization temperature and salinity, also vary with depth.Activity diagrams were constructed from mineral and isotherm analysis to estimate the chemical constraints on the alteration-mineral assemblages and the coexisting hydrothermal solutions for the Na₂O–K₂O–CaO–MgO–FeO–Fe₂O₃–A1₂O₃–SiO₂–H₂SO₄–H₂S–HCI–H₂O system at 350 to 600 °C and 500 bars (50 MPa), assuming that the major alteration mineral assemblages along the profile reflect the nature of the coexisting hydrothermal solutions. The activity diagrams adopted the major minerals as buffers to fix the activities of the aqueous species in the system, simulating the physicochemical conditions of the magnetite–anhydrite–pyroxene equilibrium and of solid solutions of diopside–hedenbergite, grossular–andradite and anorthite–albite found in the profile.This study provides an approach to modeling the chemical constraints of coexisting fluids in ore-alteration zones based on field observations.     

强夯法处理湿陷性黄土工程实践

以同煤集团塔山洗煤厂为例,探讨了强夯法在湿陷性黄土中的应用,提出了强夯法处理黄土的适用条件、强夯方案的确定原则、地基土含水量对强夯施工效果的影响等论点,尤其是用复合地基理论确定强夯地基承载力的方法。     

黄土的湿陷性与击实试验指标关系研究

进行了黄土的击实试验,提出了击实率的概念,拓展了CART(classification and regression trees)决策树算法的功能。将其用于相关性挖掘,进行了原状黄土湿陷性与击实率等指标的相关性挖掘,结果表明,击实率与湿陷系数具有相关性,击实率与最优含水率状态的击实率呈显著负相关性。根据试验及分析结果提出黄土在击实过程中的变形特性可反映黄土的湿陷性,黄土的击实效果同其湿陷性具相关性。这一研究为黄土湿陷性的评价提出了一条新的思路,同时成果具有实用性。     

Correlation of main physicochemical parameters of some groundwater in northern Serbia

The geothermal waters of the first and the shallowest groundwater system of the Province of Vojvodina in northern Serbia, south part of the Pannonian Basin, are characterized by elevated temperatures (between 25 and 85 °C) and elevated gas content (above 1 Nm³/m³) with a high methane content (average about 94% of total gases). These methane-containing waters are particularly abundant in the Central part of the province between Danube and Tisa rivers. Dominant ions in these waters are sodium and bicarbonate, but the waters also contain significant amounts of calcium, magnesium, potassium, chloride, and ammonium. Components that are of balneological significance include iodine, bromine, fluorine, strontium, lithium, barium, and metasilicic and metaboric acids. Based on statistical analysis, a strong positive correlation is generally observed in about 9.2% cases. A slightly lower correlation appears in about 42.2%, and negative correlation coefficient appears in about 48.6% cases. The dendrogram of the cluster analysis built on the wells shows three main groups. There is the cluster of (Na⁺)_aq, (Cl⁻)_aq and (HCO₃⁻)_aq. The second aggregation is (NH₄⁺)_aq/(NH₃)_aq. The third group includes (Mg²⁺)_aq, (Ca²⁺)_aq, (Fe³⁺)_aq, (Sr²⁺)_aq, (Pb²⁺)_aq, and (Zn²⁺)_aq.