Soil physics and fertility Texture (see Particle-size distribution) The texture of a soil refers to the size-composition of elementary

grains in a soil. The texture affects productivity in several ways. Sandy soils are said to be light and clays heavy. These terms originated from the number of horses needed to pull a plow. The texture is an important factor determining the amount of pores and the pore size distribution, two properties that are of fundamental importance for water relations, aeration and root penetration and thus for soil fertility. Sandy soils have large pores so that infiltration rates and permeabilities to water are high, and they retain little water (Table S8). In contrast, clays have low infiltration rates, low permeabilities, retain much water in available as well as in unavailable form, and may be poorly drained. Specific surfaces and ion exchange capacities (CEC) of sands are low as compared to clays although clay mineralogy is another factor to be considered for the CEC. Aeration is good in sandy soils and fair to poor in clays, depending on their structure. Roots penetrate sands more easily than clays. Soils of intermediate textures such as loams are also intermediate in porosity, water retention, and drainage. The general tendency is for productivity to be better on medium-textured soils consisting of a mixture of sand, silt, and clay than on soils that are light, heavy or mainly silty. The texture is one of the most important soil properties affecting fertility. It is easily estimated by feeling the soil: sandy soils feel gritty, intermediate soils more silky and clays are cloddy or plastic. More accurate laboratory methods involving sieving and sedimentation of elementary particles are also used. Management of texture is usually not economical. However, consequences of poor texture can often be partially alleviated by improving soil structure. Structure The arrangement of elementary particles into aggregates is considered structure, which, in combination with texture, governs porosity of the soil and thus affects water relations, aeration, root penetration, and the metabolic activities of soil flora and fauna. The binding among elementary particles occurs through unbalanced charges at broken edges of clay particles, through bi- and polyvalent ions that neutralize charges of two different clay particles and thus form a bridge to hold the particles together through iron, calcium carbonate or silicate cements and through organic matter. Water too is a potent glue due to the fact that water in small pores is under a lower pressure than atmospheric. Therefore, the atmospheric pressure acting on the particles presses them together and gives them stability. There is no agreement as to how to describe and measure structure (see Structure). In a large number of soils it is important to manage soil structure. Many difficulties of extremely light and extremely heavy soils can be overcome. For example, poor water infiltration and permeation of heavy soils can be overcome by an adequate soil structure allowing for enough pores for an adequate flow of water and air. Application of solid animal manure is a good way to improve soil structure. Synthetic organic chemicals that have an effect on soil structure have appeared on the market. Water: Plants require much larger amounts of water than mineral nutrients. Most of the water simply passes through the plant and is lost into the atmosphere through stomatal openings on the leaf surface. These

openings are necessary for the entry of CO2, which is utilized in photosynthesis. Only a small quantity of the water is used for biochemical and other processes such as maintenance of turgidity. Important aspects of soil water are the availability and its buffering capacity. The state of water in soils is in modern terminology described by the soil water potential which is equivalent to the chemical potential of water and is measured in energy units per unit mass (e.g., J kg1). Incorrect pressure units (Pa) are often used, corresponding to energy per unit volume. The water potential is relative to the standard state of pure free water at a standard pressure and a reference elevation. The potential is affected by the matrix, which gives the matric component, by solutes, defining an osmotic component, and by the pressure,

Soil physical properties can be divided into 3 groups: _ relatively stable (texture, mineralogy, cementing agents, profile development, topography), resulting from geological and pedological processes, _ dynamic (structure, bulk density, pore size, aggregation, profile characteristics), _ highly variable (water, air, temperature, mechanical resistance). Every physical property and process in question is modified by natural conditions (mainly weather phenomena such as precipitation and radiation) and human manipulations (management practices such as tillage, plowing, chemical additives, irrigation and drainage), which drastically change physical properties of upper soil layers. Soil physical properties and processes are more or less closely interconnected, which is shown on Figure P47. A very good relationship exists between soil, water, air, temperature and mechanical resistance, which directly affect plant roots. They are by turn, affected by texture, structure, bulk density, aggregation, pore size distribution and profile characteristics.

figure

Soil-root relations are very complex and dynamic. These relations occur at the soil-root interface, which is defined as a boundary between the outermost root tissues and the particles of soil, which are closest to them. Within this boundary is a zone of microbial activity called rhizosphere. Root environment is rapidly changing especially in respect to soil physical conditions such as mechanical properties, moisture, aeration and temperature.

Soil structure
Soil pore size distribution, and hence the liquid and gas phase impedance factors, are related to soil texture and packing. A comparison of the data for pairs of contrasting soils in Figures D6 and D7 illustrate the effect of soil texture on the variation of fL with yL, r and pF. The larger the average pore size the less tortuous is the diffusion pathway, however it is not possible to make precise predictions. The pore size distributions of sieved, repacked soils differ from undisturbed cores and this will be reflected in the impedance factors, however the effect is generally small (Pinner and Nye, 1982). Soil structure contributes to the formation and stability of gas bubbles that may in turn interfere with the diffusive flux of soil gases including methane (Rothfuss and Conrad, 1998).

Bulk density
The liquid phase impedance factor has been found to be dependent on the bulk density. This probably arises largely from the dependence of the geometric tortuosity on the pore size distribution. Few data are available at constant moisture content. Figure D6b illustrates the decrease in the liquid phase impedance factor with increasing bulk density for two soils, each maintained at constant moisture content. In general, the effect of bulk density, for a given soil, is of minor importance when compared to that of water content (Barraclough and Tinker, 1981; So and Nye, 1989). Similar trends are found for gaseous diffusion, as increasing bulk density usually implies decreasing air-filled porosity. POROSITY The property of being porous. Operationally, the total volume in a soil or sediment, not occupied by solid materials. The interconnectivity of pores is a principal determining factor in hydraulic conductivity

Soil water potentials

Movement of water occurs from locations in the soil where the water in the soil has a high energy to locations where that energy is lower. The energy of soil water must be expressed in terms of the total potential, which is energy per unit quantity. The total potential of water c is defined as the mechanical work required to transfer unit quantity of water reversibly and isothermally from a standard reference state, where c is taken as zero, to the situation where the potential has the defined value. A pool of pure water at an elevation that can be arbitrarily specified and that experiences a gas pressure of 100 kPa is taken as the standard reference state. Many forces may affect the total potential of water in the soil. The gravitational potential Z is due to the attraction by the Earth and increases with height from the Earth's surface. The pressure in soil water at a particular point will be greater than one atmosphere if that

point is submerged beneath a free-water surface, which can be the level of the groundwater. The potential due to this cause is the submergence potential S. If the soil is unsaturated, the pressure in the soil water is less than that of the local atmosphere. It is convenient to refer to a pressure less than atmospheric as a suction or tension (see Wetting front). The potential due to this cause is the matric or capillary potential M. From their character it follows that the S andMpotential are mutually exclusive possibilities. Another possible cause of pressure change in soil water is a change in the pressure of the air adjacent to it. This may be expressed by the term pneumatic potential G. It is convenient to define the pressure potential P: P M (or S) G, which sums the effect of all pressure changes on the potential of soil water, whatever the cause of these pressure changes may be. In addition, osmotic effects of solutes in soil water must be considered because they affect the thermodynamic properties of the soil water. The effect of solutes on the total potential of soil water, expressed as the osmotic potential O, becomes of primary significance if the water is separated by a membrane whose permeability to water molecules differs from that to solute molecules. This aspect is relevant for water movement into and through plant roots. The total potential C of soil water is the sum of all the component potentials: CZPO It is often convenient to define potentials on a unit weight basis rather than on a unit mass basis. For example, for the gravitational potential Z, it follows that Zw W/rg(dv) z (cm) where W equals r(dv)gz; representing the work needed to transfer the quantity dv over a distance z (r equals density of water; g equals acceleration of gravity). For many flow problems, only the Z and P potentials are relevant. Therefore a hydraulic potential f has been defined as follows: f Z P. When potentials are expressed per unit weight, it follows that f H (cm). The heigh H is called the Hydraulic Head.