Quantitative estimation of soil total porosity and macro-porosity as part of the pedological description

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Abstract
For 35 New Zealand soil samples of varied origin, estimates of total porosity and macro-porosity group were compared with measurements of these properties in an endeavour to judge the feasibility of making such estimates as part of the pedological field description. The estimates of total porosity group were made by visual observation of the surface roughness of the soil. To determine whether this latter quality was correctly judged, independent estimates of it were obtained from measurements on photographic negatives of the soils and were found to relate well with total porosity group estimates. Soils in which neither total porosity group estimate nor the measurements on the photographic negative agreed with total porosity were regarded as “exceptional”, and total porosity group estimates for such soils must be adjusted. Generally speaking, macro-porosity group estimate agreed well with actual macro-porosity values. It is considered that for New Zealand soils, estimation of both total porosity and macro-porosity is feasible, and suggested methods and photographs are presented as an aid to such estimation.

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