SOIL DISPERSIBILITY

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Samples were taken of 6 surface soils, 2 subsurface soils, and 1 organic soil from the Menomonee River Watershed, Wisconsin [USA] and dispersed by shaking with water to simulate natural water erosion and particle transport conditions, and by ultrasound to provide complete dispersion. The shaking treatment consisted of end-over-end agitation of a 1:10 wt:vol soil:water mixture for 0.5-128 h, and the ultrasound treatment was for a 15-min period. The ratio of the amount of clay-sized particles dislodged by shaking to the amount of clay-sized particles obtained by ultrasound treatment was used to measure ease of dispersibility of soils. Samples with clay-sized particles that disperse readily under the shaking treatment have a higher dispersibility ratio than samples with clay-sized particles that remain intact as aggregates. If a 4-h shaking treatment simulates the onset of soil erosion conditions in the field, as much as 90% of the primary clay-sized particles remain intact as silt-sized or larger aggregates. The clay dispersibility ratio was significantly correlated with organic C content in an inverse relationship. The logarithmic and linear relationships were also studied.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: