*Correspondence: Erik F. Braudeau, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Pédologie Hydrostructurale, 32 Avenue Henri Varagnat, 93140 Bondy, France e-mail: [email protected] Current soil water models do not take into account the internal organization of the soil medium and consequently ignore the physical interaction between the water film at the surface of solids that form the soil st...

Abstract Nitrates when found in excess in the groundwater, is a health hazard. Nitrates can easily be transported by groundwater movement and may eventually reach aquifers located far away from the contamination location. It is important to monitor the nitrate movement in the groundwater to predict the extent of nitrate contamination. Traditionally, nitrate movement is monitored by sampling gro...

Methyl isothiocyanate (MITC) generators, such as metam sodium (Met-Na), are used for soil fumigation of agricultural land. The ban on the fumigant methyl bromide has resulted in greater use of MITC generators. To understand the efficacy of MITC, it is necessary to assess its generation and disappearance kinetics when Met-Na is applied to soil. This study evaluated the movement of water and dist...

Temperature gradients exist in the field under brackish water irrigation conditions, especially in northern semi–arid areas of China. Although there are many investigators dedicated to studying the mechanism of brackish water irrigation and the effect of brackish water irrigation on crops, there are fewer investigations of the effects of temperature gradient on the water–salt transport. Based o...

The main objective of this study was to determine the influence of soil moisture, organic matter amendment and plastic cover (a virtually impermeable film, VIF) on diffusion and emissions of (Z)- and (E)-1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-D) in microplots of Florida sandy soil (Arredondo fine sand). Upward diffusion of the two isomers in the Arredondo soil without a plastic cover was greatly influenced b...

Split root experiments have the potential to disentangle water transport in roots and soil, enabling the investigation of the water uptake pattern of a root system. Interpretation of the experimental data assumes that water flow between the split soil compartments does not occur. Another approach to investigate root water uptake is by numerical simulations combining soil and root water flow dep...

Water availability and movement in soil are critical determinants of resource availability to, and interactions among, members of the soil community. However, it has been impossible to observe gradients in soil water potential empirically at millimetre spatial scales. Here we describe progress towards that goal using output from two microbial biosensors, Pantoea agglomerans BRT98/pPProGreen and...

The unsaturated soil hydraulic properties, including soil water retention curve and hydraulic conductivity, are the crucial input parameters for simulating soil water and solute transport through the unsaturated zone at regional scales, and are expensive to measure. These properties are frequently predicted with pedotransfer functions (PTFs) using the routinely measured soil properties. 110 soi...