Effect of Super Absorbent Polymer and Ceratophyllum Powder Application on Some Soil Physical Properties

Abstract

Abstract A two factorial laboratory experiment was conducted according to randomized complete block design with three replications, to investigate the effect of super absorbent polymer (SAP) and ceratophyllum powder application on some physical characteristics of loamy sand soil. The first factor included three levels of super absorbent polymer, namely 0,0.2, and 0.4 %. While the second factor consists of three levels of ceratophyllum powder i.e., 0,2, and 4 %. The treated soil (treated with super absorbent polymer and ceratophyllum powder) was exposed to 14 cycles of wetting and drying. Effect of experiments factors on coefficient of linear extensibility, soil bulk density and total porosity were measured. The obtained results show that the super absorbent polymer and ceratophyllum powder application led to increase the dry soil bulk density, total porosity, and the coefficient of linear extensibility values for all application levels. Regarding the soil aggregate stability, a significant increase was observed under effect of super absorbent polymer and ceratophyllum powder application. Where the highest value of soil aggregate stability was recorded at 0.4% level of SAP reached 54.2%. Likewise, the highest value of soil aggregate stability under effect of ceratophyllum powder application reached 30.7% at 4% level of application, compare to the control treatment that gave 11.1 % with increasing rate reached 76.5%. In same direction, all moisture content had increased under effect of study factors. However, the super absorbent polymer was superior to ceratophyllum powder application.