Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (1) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Sander, T. Articles by Gerke, H. H. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Preferential Flow Patterns in Paddy Fields Using a Dye Tracer

Institute of Soil Landscape Research, Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Eberswalder Strasse 84, D-15374 Müncheberg, Germany

Correspondence: ^* Corresponding author (hgerke{at}zalf.de)

Received for publication 2 March 2006. Reports of chemical leaching from intensively cropped paddy rice (Oryza sativa L.) field sites indicate that soil structure dynamics may possibly affect preferential flow and transport despite repeated "puddling" (i.e., mechanical homogenization of water-saturated soil) and plow pan formation. Our objective was to identify preferential pathways of soils in regularly managed paddy fields, which were drained during temporal fallow. Dye tracer studies were conducted on two experimental 20-yr-old rice fields of about 300 m² located in the Sunjian watershed in southeast China (Jiangxi province). Brilliant Blue solution was applied by ponding a 50-mm pulse onto four 1-m² plots with intact and unleveled soil surfaces. Staining patterns were recorded for 11 to 13 vertical and 10 to 15 horizontal soil profiles. Dye tracer penetrated vertically via preferential pathways to depths ranging from 94 (vertical profiles) to 120 cm (horizontal profiles), while most of the soil matrix remained unstained. Stained biopores and cracks were found in the plow pan. Horizontal profiles with stained pathways indicate large spatial heterogeneity of hydraulic conductivity. Dye coverage vs. depth calculated from vertical and horizontal profiles suggests that horizontal spreading of the solution above the plow pan supports access to plow pan macropores. Penetration through the plow pan proceeded with little horizontal spreading. The results obtained here for initially drained paddy soils indicate that preferential flow is a phenomenon that may be relevant for water and nutrient cycling (and losses to groundwater) in paddy fields. If the observed macropores and crack networks persist, preferential flow might even occur under flooding conditions.

Abbreviations: BB, Brilliant Blue dye tracer

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Janssen and B. Lennartz Characterization of Preferential Flow Pathways through Paddy Bunds with Dye Tracer Tests Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., October 30, 2008; 72(6): 1756 - 1766. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				T. Sander and H. H. Gerke Noncontact Shrinkage Curve Determination for Soil Clods and Aggregates by Three-Dimensional Optical Scanning Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., August 9, 2007; 71(5): 1448 - 1454. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]