Soil Properties as Indicators of Soil Moisture Regime Parameters (a Review)

Abstract

The water movement in soils contributes to the formation of a number of specific soil properties; their interpretation allows for to characterization of the features of both individual hydrological processes and the soil water regime, which is especially important due to the limited possibilities of soil wetness monitoring. The review considers the diagnostic indicators of mineral soils, determined in the field and laboratory conditions, characterized by different formation times and resistance to changes in environmental factors. Field methods for diagnosing soil moisture regime parameters make it possible to formulate hypotheses about the features of water behavior within the soil profile, which can later be confirmed or refuted as a result of laboratory diagnostic methods, regime observations, and physical and mathematiqcal modeling. In particular, on the basis of a standard field description of soils, it is possible to identify the zone of the greatest moisture turnover, areas of the soil profile, which are characterized by constant and periodic moisture stagnation, as well as determining the level of occurrence of the capillary fringe. Clay coats, root burrows, and soil animals paths mark the preferental flows. Laboratory diagnostic methods are aimed at assessing the quantitative ratio of hydrological processes in the soil; basically, they allow to characterize the source, duration and intensity of the period of soil overmoistering. The Schwertman criterion is the most commonly used analytical indicator for diagnosing soil overmoistering, the possibility and effectiveness of which has been shown for a wide range of soils. Verification of the results of hydrological modeling by soil properties is potentially possible for the processes of downward and lateral runoff, physical evaporation of moisture, transpiration, evapotranspiration and capillary rise.