Effects of peat content,rainfall duration and aggregate size on soil crust strength

The effect of peat on crust strength was investigated using ten soils with organic matter levels ranging from 1-50 to 18-23 per cent. As peat content increased, the crust strength reduced. This occurred in spite of the inability of peat to increase the stability of soil aggregates. Peat reduced crust strength by acting as a mulch on the soil surface, thereby reducing breakdown of soil aggregates. Peat also formed a source of weakness on the soil, reducing crust formation. Using a factorial experiment involving a further seven soils with different levels of peat treatment, exposed to four rainfall durations and with two aggregate sizes, crust strength was described in terms of the direct effects and the interactions of these factors. Most of the crust strength values reduced with increasing peat content. For each soil, crust strength increased significantly with increasing rainfall duration. Crust strength was greater for the smaller aggregate size. The most significant interactions affecting crust strength were between soil and aggregate size, rainfall duration and aggregate size, and soil and rainfall duration in that order. These interactions were used to describe the effect of organic matter in form of peat on crust strength. For each soil and aggregate size, polynomial relationships were established to relate crust strength to total kinetic energy of rainfall.     

Field measurements of rainfall drop-size distribution,and the relationships between rainfall parameters and soil movement by rainsplash

Rainfall drop-size distributions were measured at a site in northern England using the ‘oflour-pellet’ technique. A relationship between intensity and kinetic energy is presented. Even at the low rainfall intensities observed (< 5 mm h^?1 average over an hour) measureable amounts of rainsplash movement took place, and these movements have been related to rainfall parameters.     

Effects of rainfall on soil moisture and water movement in a subalpine dark coniferous forest in southwestern China

Water content and movement in soil profile and hydrogen isotope composition (δD) of soil water, rainwater, and groundwater were examined in a subalpine dark coniferous forest in the Wolong National Nature Reserve in Sichuan, China, following rainfall events in 2003–2004. Light rainfall increased water content in the litter and at soil depth of 0–80 cm, but the increased soil water was lost in several days. Heavy rainfall increased soil water content up to 85% at depths of 0–40 cm. Following the light rainfall in early spring, the δD of water from the litter, humus, illuvial, and material layers decreased first and then gradually reached the pre‐rainfall level. In summer, light rainfall reached the litter humus, and illuvial layer, but did not hit the material layer. Heavy rainfall affected δD of water in all layers. The δD of soil interflow slightly fluctuated with rainfall events. The δD of shallow groundwater did not differ significantly among all rainfall events. Light rainfall altered the shape of δD profile curve of water in the upper layer of soil, whereas heavy rainfall greatly affected the shape of δD profile curve of water in all soil layers. Following the heavy rainfall, preferential flow initially occurred through macropores, decayed plant roots, and rocks at different depths of soil profile. With continuing rainfall, the litter and surface soil were nearly saturated or fully saturated, and infiltration became homogeneous and plug‐like. Forest soil water, particularly in deeper soil profile, was slightly affected by rainfall and, thus, can be a source of water supply for regional needs, particularly during dry seasons. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis on monitoring crust movement by using GPS in Qinghai-Xiqang Plateau

Based on the analysis of the 1993 and 1995 GPS data acquired from crust movement and deformation monitoring in thc Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, the following preliminary conclusions could be drawn: the levelly moving rate and direction of the land massifs in the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau tally with the viewpoint generally held by geologists and geophysicists irr recent years; the accuracy of monitoring crust movement has reached the world advanced level; the result has provided valuable and reliable information to the quantitative analysis of the modern crust movement and deformation in the plateau. Project supported by the Nntional Natural Science Foundation of China.     

Impact of rainfall pattern on interrill erosion process

The impact of rainfall pattern on the interrill erosion process is not fully understood despite its importance. Systematic rainfall simulation experiments involving various rainfall intensities, stages, intensity sequences, and surface cover conditions were conducted in this study to investigate their effects on the interrill erosion process. Five rainfall patterns designed with the same total kinetic energy/precipitation (increasing, decreasing, rising–falling, falling–rising and constant patterns) were randomly delivered to a pre‐wet clay loam soil surface at a 10° slope gradient. Significant differences in soil losses were observed among the different rainfall patterns and stages, but there was no obvious difference in runoff. Kinetic energy flux (KE_r) was a governing factor for interrill erosion, and constant rainfall pattern (CST) produced nine times greater soil loss than runs with no KE_r. Varied‐intensity patterns had a profound effect on raindrop‐induced sediment transport processes; path analysis results indicated that said effect was complex, interactive and intensity‐dependent. Low hydraulic parameter thresholds further indicated that KE_r was the dominant factor in detaching soil particles, while overland flow mainly contributed to transporting the pre‐detached particles. This study not only sheds light on the mechanism of interrill sediment transport capacity and detachability, but also may provide a useful database for developing event‐based interrill erosion prediction models. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rill development and soil erosion: a laboratory study of slope and rainfall intensity

A total of 15 rainfall simulation experiments were conducted in a 1 m by 2 m box varying slope (10, 20, 30%) and rainfall intensity (60, 90, 120 mm h^?1). The experiments were performed to study how rill networks initiate and evolve over time under controlled conditions with regard to the treatment variables considered, and to allow for input in a computer simulation model. Runoff and sediment yield samples were collected. Digital elevation models were calculated by means of photogrammetry for several time steps of most experiments. The soil used in the experiments was a basal till derived Cambisol typical for the Swiss Plateau. While significant differences were found for sediment yield, runoff did not vary significantly with treatment combinations. Increasing rainfall intensity had a larger effect on sediment yield than increasing slope. Rill density and energy expenditure decreased with time, suggesting that energy expenditure was a useful parameter to describe the emergence of rill network at the laboratory scale. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluation of the impact of rainfall on soil moisture variability

The impact of rainfall on the spatial-temporal soil moisture variability is investigated by using a model of the soil moisture dynamics and two rainfall models, the noise-forced diffusive precipitation model and the WGR model. The study shows that the variability of the soil moisture field is impacted during the limited time of the storm period. During the interstorm period, the variability of the soil moisture field is closely related with the soil texture, as supported by the analysis of the Washita '92 data set. As the impact of rainfall on the variability of the soil moisture field is limited to the short time period of precipitation, the role of the rainfall is simplified as a source of water to the soil moisture field without any consideration of its variability and/or organization in space. A simulation study of the soil moisture field temporal evolution also supports this result, i.e. a strong relationship between the soil moisture field and the variability of its medium. Also, larger variabilities of the loss field coefficient result in easier removal of moisture from the soil.     

Impact of spatial rainfall resolution on point-source solute transport modelling

Numerical simulations of unsaturated solute transport from point sources were carried out using HYDRUS-1D. Three different soil types cropped with spring wheat were considered at three different locations in Sweden: Malmö, Norrköping and Petisträsk. Two types of rainfall data were used, point-scale raingauge measurements and a gauge-adjusted weather radar product at four spatial resolutions, 2 × 2, 6 × 6, 10 × 10 and 14 × 14 km². The results showed that differences in the mean solute transport depths were small and not significant, with the exception of Petisträsk. Maximum transport depths were in most cases significantly larger using raingauge data compared to radar data. The results showed that using areal-averaged rainfall input will give solute transport estimations close to those using point-measured data. This shows the great potential in using radar-measured rainfall data in small-scale hydrological applications.     

Stratification response of soil water content during rainfall events under different rainfall patterns

Many researchers have studied the influence of rainfall patterns on soil water movement processes using rainfall simulation experiments. However, less attention has been paid to the influence under natural condition. In this paper, rainfall, soil water content (SWC), and soil temperature at 10‐, 20‐, 30‐, 40‐, and 50‐cm depths were simultaneously monitored at 1‐min intervals to measure the variation in SWC (SWCv) in response to rainfall under different rainfall patterns. First, we classified rainfall events into four patterns. During the study period, the main pattern was the advanced rainfall pattern (38% of all rainfall events), whereas the delayed, central, and uniform rainfall patterns had similar frequencies of about 20%. During natural rainfall, rainwater rapidly passed through the top soil layers (10–40 cm) and was accumulated in the bottom layer (50 cm). When a high rainfall pulse occurred, the water storage balance was disturbed, resulting in the drainage of initial soil water from the top layers into the deeper layers. Therefore, the critical function of the top layers and the bottom layers was infiltration and storage, respectively. The source of water stored in the bottom layer was not only rainfall but also the initial soil water in the upper soil layers. Changes in soil temperature at each soil depth were comonitored with SWCv to determine the movement characteristics of soil water under different rainfall patterns. Under the delayed rainfall pattern, preferential flows preferred to occur. Under the other rainfall patterns, matrix flow was the main form of soil water movement. Rainfall amount was a better indicator than rainfall intensity for SWCv in the bottom layer under the delayed rainfall pattern. These results provide insights into the responses of SWCv under different rainfall patterns in northern China.     

Seismic settlements of shallow foundations on liquefiable soil with a clay crust

A simplified analytical methodology is presented for the computation of the seismic settlements of strip and rectangle footings resting on liquefiable soil with a clay crust. It is based on results of fully-coupled dynamic numerical analyses, performed with a critical-state constitutive model, and captures the physical mechanism of settlement accumulation, which is associated to a “sliding-block” type of punching failure through the clay crust and within the liquefied sand layer. More specifically, liquefaction-induced settlements are correlated to the seismic excitation characteristics and the post-shaking degraded static factor of safety, while the effect of shear-induced dilation of the liquefied subsoil is also taken into account. Analytical predictions are evaluated against experimental observations from centrifuge and large-scale experiments, as well as, against in-situ observations from the City of Adapazari, during the 1999 Kocaeli Earthquake. Finally, easy to use, performance-based design (PBD) charts are developed for quick application of the proposed methodology in practice.     

The increase of rainfall erosivity and initial soil erosion processes due to rainfall acidification

The drastic growth of population in highly industrialized urban areas, as well as fossil fuel use, is increasing levels of airborne pollutants and enhancing acid rain. In rapidly developing countries such as Iran, the occurrence of acid rain has also increased. Acid rain is a driving factor of erosion due to the destructive effects on biota and aggregate stability; however, little is known about its impact on specific rates of erosion at the pedon scale. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of acid rain at pH levels of 5.25, 4.25, and 3.75 for rainfall intensities of 40, 60, and 80 mm h^?1 on initial soil erosion processes under dry and saturated soil conditions using rainfall simulations. The results were compared using a two‐way ANOVA and Duncan tests and showed that initial soil erosion rates with acidic rain and non‐acidic rain under dry soil conditions were significantly different. The highest levels of soil particle loss due to splash effects in all rainfall intensities were observed with the most acidic rain (pH = 3.75), reaching maximum values of 16 g m^?2 min^?1. The lowest levels of particle losses were observed in the control plot where non‐acidic rain was used, with values ranging from 3.8 to 8.1 g m^?2 min^?1. Similarly, under saturated soil conditions, the lowest level of soil particle loss was observed in the control plot, and the highest peaks of soil loss were observed for the most acidic rains (pH = 3.75 and pH = 4.25), reaching maximum average values of 40 g m^?2 min^?1. However, for saturated soils with acidic water but with non‐acidic rain, the highest soil particle loss was observed for the control plot for all the rainfall intensities. In conclusion, acidic rain has a negative impact on soils, which can be more intense with a concomitant increase in rainfall intensity. Rapid solutions, therefore, need to be found to reduce the emission of pollutants into the air, otherwise, rainfall erosivity may drastically increase.     

Effect of the inter-annual variability of rainfall statistics on stochastically generated rainfall time series: part 1. Impact on peak and extreme rainfall values

A noble approach of stochastic rainfall generation that can account for inter-annual variability of the observed rainfall is proposed. Firstly, we show that the monthly rainfall statistics that is typically used as the basis of the calibration of the parameters of the Poisson cluster rainfall generators has significant inter-annual variability and that lumping them into a single value could be an oversimplification. Then, we propose a noble approach that incorporates the inter-annual variability to the traditional approach of Poisson cluster rainfall modeling by adding the process of simulating rainfall statistics of individual months. Among 132 gage-months used for the model verification, the proportion that the suggested approach successfully reproduces the observed design rainfall values within 20 % error varied between 0.67 and 0.83 while the same value corresponding to the traditional approach varied between 0.21 and 0.60. This result suggests that the performance of the rainfall generation models can be largely improved not only by refining the model structure but also by incorporating more information about the observed rainfall, especially the inter-annual variability of the rainfall statistics.     

降雨对土层标与基岩标影响的差异性分析

通过对南京地震台短水准测量中的基岩标志和土层标石的抗干扰分析,发现:温度、气压的影响可以通过改变观测时间段来尽量减小,使其对两类观测点观测资料没有明显影响;降雨量大小对基岩点的影响很弱,对土石点影响较大,则没办法消除.表明,在选择好的观测场地的同时,也要根据观测资料的需要埋设合理的测点标志类型.     

The non-independence of rainfall erosivity and soil erodibility

Three high erosivity conditions (50 mm hr^?1, 100 mm hr^?1, and 200 mm hr^?1) were generated in a laboratory using a rainfall simulator and coherent soil block samples from fourteen different soil erodibility conditions. The data acquired supports the theoretical contention that soil loss should not increase as a simple linear function of storm intensity. Rather, a variable relationship is caused by the rupturing of surface seals and the changing relative significance of splash, wash and rainwash processes. Slope angle appears to influence soil loss at the higher erosivity conditions of 100 mm hr^?1 and 200 mm hr^?1 on slopes that were either very steep (> 20°) or very shallow (< 3°), but on moderate slopes the relationship is unclear. Examination of the variation of soil loss with erosivity when soil loss for a specific high erosivity condition is known revealed that conversion and power factors are of doubtful value and little generality. A satisfactory predictive equation, a power curve, is seen to be of value only when comparing rainwash soil loss between the higher erosivity conditions. The relationship is most safely considered as soil and site specific. Where the influence of slope and soil erodibility are disregarded, a strong association between soil loss and rainfall intensity is found. That soil loss, and hence, soil erodibility varies non-uniformly with erosivity is clear. The findings indicate caution is required when comparing conclusions drawn from studies based upon different erosivity conditions.     

Effects of rainfall and slope on runoff,soil erosion and rill development: an experimental study using two loess soils

Runoff generation and soil loss from slopes have been studied for decades, but the relationships among runoff, soil loss and rill development are still not well understood. In this paper, rainfall simulation experiments were conducted in two neighbouring plots (scale: 1 m by 5 m) with four varying slopes (17.6%, 26.8%, 36.4% and 46.6%) and two rainfall intensities (90 and 120 mm h^?1) using two loess soils. Data on rill development were extracted from the digital elevation models by means of photogrammetry. The effects of rainfall intensity and slope gradient on runoff, soil loss and rill development were different for the two soils. The runoff and soil loss from the Anthrosol surface were generally higher than those from the Calcaric Cambisol surface. Higher rainfall intensity produced less runoff and more sediment for almost each treatment. With increasing slope gradient, the values of cumulative runoff and soil loss peaked, except for the treatments with 90 mm h^?1 rainfall on the slopes with Anthrosol. With rainfall duration, runoff discharge decreased for Anthrosol and increased for Calcaric Cambisol for almost all the treatments. For both soils, sediment concentration was very high at the onset of rainfall and decreased quickly. Almost all the sediment concentrations increased on the 17.6% and 26.8% slopes and peaked on the 36.4% and 46.6% slopes. Sediment concentrations were higher on the Anthrosol slopes than on the Calcaric Cambisol slopes. At 90 mm h^?1 rainfall intensity, increasingly denser rills appeared on the Anthrosol slope as the slope gradient increased, while only steep slopes (36.4% and 46.6%) developed rills for the Calcaric Cambisol soil. The contributions of rill erosion ranged from 36% to 62% of the cumulative soil losses for Anthrosol, while the maximum contribution of rill erosion to the cumulative soil loss was only 37.9% for Calcaric Cambisol. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sodicity effects on hydrological processes of sodic soil slopes under simulated rainfall

Soil salinization can occur in many regions of the world. Soil sodicity affects rainfall‐runoff relationships and related erosion processes considerably. We investigated sodicity effects on infiltration, runoff and erosion processes on sodic soil slopes for two soils from China under simulated rainfall. Five sodicity levels were established in a silt loam and a silty clay with clay contents of 8.5% and 46.0%, respectively. The soils, packed in 50 cm × 30 cm × 15 cm flumes at two slope gradients (22° and 35°), were exposed to 60 min of simulated rainfall (deionized water) at a constant intensity of 125 mm h^?1. Results showed that, for both soils, increasing soil sodicity had some significant effects on hydrological processes, reducing the infiltration coefficient (pr = ?0.69, P  < 0.01) and the quasi‐steady final infiltration rate (pr = ?0.80, P  < 0.01), and increasing the mean sediment loss (pr = 0.39, P  < 0.05); however, it did not significantly affect the cumulative rainfall to ponding (P  > 0.05). Moreover, increasing sodicity significantly increased the Reynolds number and the stream power (pr = 0.78 and 0.66, P  < 0.01, respectively) of the runoff, decreased Manning roughness and Darcy–Weisbach coefficient (pr = ?0.52 and ?0.52, P  < 0.05, respectively), but did not significantly affect the mean flow velocity, mean flow depth, Froude number and hydraulic shear stress. Stream power was shown to be the most sensitive hydraulic variable affecting sediment loss for both soils. Furthermore, as sodicity increased, the values of critical stream power decreased for both the silt loam (R ² = 0.29, P  < 0.05) and the silty clay (R ² = 0.49, P  < 0.05). The findings of this study were applied to a real situation and identified some negative effects that can occur with increasing sodicity levels. This emphasized the importance of addressing the influences of soil sodicity in particularly high risk situations and when predicting soil and water losses.     

Sensitivity of soil moisture field evolution to rainfall forcing

In this paper the temporal behaviour of soil moisture is modelled and statistically characterized by use of the zero‐dimensional model for soil moisture dynamics and the rectangular pulses Poisson process model for rainfall forcing. The mean, covariance and spectral density function of soil moisture (both instantaneous and locally averaged cases) are analytically derived to evaluate its sensitivity to the model parameters. Finally, the probability density function of soil moisture is derived to evaluate the effect of rainfall forcing. All the model parameters used have been tuned to the Monsoon '90 data. Results can be summarized as follows. (1) Only the soil moisture model parameters (η and nZ_r) are found to affect the autocorrelation function in a distinguishable manner. On the other hand, both the rainfall model parameter (θ) and the effective soil depth (nZ_r) are found to be of impact to the soil moisture spectrum. However, as the smoothing (or damping) effect of soil is so dominant, about ±20% variation of one parameter seems not to affect significantly the second‐order statistics of soil moisture. (2) More difference can be found by applying a longer averaging time, which is found to obviously decrease the variance but increase the correlation even though no overlapping between neighbouring soil moisture data was allowed. (3) Among rainfall model parameters, the arrival rate (λ) was found to be most important for the soil moisture evolution. When increasing the arrival rate of rainfall, the histogram of soil moisture shifts its peak to a certain value as well as becomes more concentrated around the peak. However, by decreasing the arrival rate of rainfall, a much smaller (almost to zero) mean value of soil moisture was estimated, even though the total volume of rainfall remained constant. This indicates that desertification may take place without decreasing the total volume of rainfall. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Channel movement and erosion response to rainfall variability in southeast Australia

Intrinsic and extrinsic forces on the catchment and stream channel network drive morphological change. Separating individual forcings is difficult given the complexity of such nonlinear systems. Here a modelling approach is used to investigate the sensitivity of channel position and movement under a series of realistic rainfall scenarios for a catchment in southeastern Australia. The results demonstrate the sensitivity of the catchment to different rainfall patterns and how relatively small changes in rainfall can lead to much larger sediment outputs revealing sensitivity to subtle changes in climate. Channel movement occurs as an avulsion. This is the first time such a process has been observed and modelled in an ephemeral stream environment and demonstrates fluvial geomorphic change at human time scales. Human intervention by rock lining channels was demonstrated to prevent the movement of the main channel. Overall the CAESAR landscape evolution and erosion model used in this study is able to replicate both erosion rates and the variation in past channel movement. The modelling suggests that any landscape change is based on both internal and external forcing and that landscape history also plays a significant role. Here, we demonstrate the potential to quantify many of the nonlinearities and thresholds in soil‐mantled catchments using a landscape evolution model. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impact of micro-organisms activity on the natural remanent magnetization of the young oceanic crust

Microbes have been widely reported in the deep subseafloor environment. Still it is difficult to detect a global chemical signature of bacterial activity in the oceanic crust. We carried out experiments up to 355 days exposing very young oceanic basalts to anaerobe sulfate reducing organisms in an in-vitro marine environment. The Natural Remanent Magnetization of samples was monitored during the whole duration of experiments and within this time frame the most magnetized sub-samples lost up to 30% of their original signal. Scanning electron microscope observations show cycling of iron from the titanomagnetites to iron sulfide phases. Our results suggest that microbes can have a major and fast impact on the magnetization of young oceanic basalts and could contribute to a global signal as the central anomaly magnetic high seen along ridges axis.