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Aims: Assuming the saturated, θs, and residual θr volumetric water contents of a seed as known inputs, we present a methodology to determine the hydraulic properties of a seed: α, n parameters and hydraulic conductivity Ks. Methods: The seed is considered as a porous material in which water flow is governed with the same hydraulic properties defined for soils. Using the HYDRUS-2D software, the hydraulic properties of a seed were estimated from the inverse analysis of several cumulative seed imbibition curves measured at different seed water potentials, h. The optimum number of h was evaluated on synthetic seeds. The theoretical analysis was validated in laboratory experiments on barley, wheat and vetch seeds, where imbibition curves were measured with germination tests at seven levels of h (from 0 to -2.50 MPa). Results: The theoretical analysis showed that accurate estimates of α, n and Ks can be obtained if the most negative h-values are included in the optimization. The sensitivity analysis showed that the method allows obtaining a unique solution of α, n and Ks. The optimization error on the theoretical α, n and Ks was less than 1%. A satisfactory validation was also obtained on the experimental seed imbibition curves, with robust fits between the measured and optimized data. A unique solution of α, n and Ks was also obtained in all cases. Conclusions: A new method to determine the hydraulic properties of a seed is presented. This methodology could be used in different areas involving seed imbibition and also to simulate seed imbibition in different scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: Germination as a function of soil water potential (h) is modelled using polyethylene glycol (PEG). But, PEG would not consider soil properties. Our objective is to show the limitations of PEG to model germination in real soils. Using a new device, the tension germinator (TG), we show the interaction between soil type, h and seed characteristics on seed germination.TG (A Mariotte reservoir that supplies water at constant h to a porous substrate on which seeds are deposited). Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and vetch (Vicia sativa L.) seeds were placed on TG with loam (TG-loam) and sand (TG-sand), and h of 0, -0.002, -0.006 MPa. Then, the imbibition curves were monitored. PEG experiments (0 to -2.5 MPa) were performed to estimate the critical h, hPEG, or h from which the imbibition curve decreases compared with that at 0 MPa. PEG curves for 0 > h > -0.01 MPa were compared with TG.PEG and TG curves were not different at 0 MPa. hPEG for barley and vetch was within [0, -0.01] MPa. While no differences were observed between PEG at [0, -0.01] MPa and TG-loam curves, TG-sand curves at -0.002 and -0.006 MPa were different to those of PEG. Conversely to PEG at -0.01 MPa, no imbibition was observed in TG-sand (-0.006 MPa). A negligible influence of h in TG-loam was observed.PEG is not adequate to describe seed germination in soil. But the TG allows monitoring seed germination in real soils and controlled h.Methods: Germination as a function of soil water potential (h) is modelled using polyethylene glycol (PEG). But, PEG would not consider soil properties. Our objective is to show the limitations of PEG to model germination in real soils. Using a new device, the tension germinator (TG), we show the interaction between soil type, h and seed characteristics on seed germination.TG (A Mariotte reservoir that supplies water at constant h to a porous substrate on which seeds are deposited). Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and vetch (Vicia sativa L.) seeds were placed on TG with loam (TG-loam) and sand (TG-sand), and h of 0, -0.002, -0.006 MPa. Then, the imbibition curves were monitored. PEG experiments (0 to -2.5 MPa) were performed to estimate the critical h, hPEG, or h from which the imbibition curve decreases compared with that at 0 MPa. PEG curves for 0 > h > -0.01 MPa were compared with TG.PEG and TG curves were not different at 0 MPa. hPEG for barley and vetch was within [0, -0.01] MPa. While no differences were observed between PEG at [0, -0.01] MPa and TG-loam curves, TG-sand curves at -0.002 and -0.006 MPa were different to those of PEG. Conversely to PEG at -0.01 MPa, no imbibition was observed in TG-sand (-0.006 MPa). A negligible influence of h in TG-loam was observed.PEG is not adequate to describe seed germination in soil. But the TG allows monitoring seed germination in real soils and controlled h.Results: Germination as a function of soil water potential (h) is modelled using polyethylene glycol (PEG). But, PEG would not consider soil properties. Our objective is to show the limitations of PEG to model germination in real soils. Using a new device, the tension germinator (TG), we show the interaction between soil type, h and seed characteristics on seed germination.TG (A Mariotte reservoir that supplies water at constant h to a porous substrate on which seeds are deposited). Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and vetch (Vicia sativa L.) seeds were placed on TG with loam (TG-loam) and sand (TG-sand), and h of 0, -0.002, -0.006 MPa. Then, the imbibition curves were monitored. PEG experiments (0 to -2.5 MPa) were performed to estimate the critical h, hPEG, or h from which the imbibition curve decreases compared with that at 0 MPa. PEG curves for 0 > h > -0.01 MPa were compared with TG.PEG and TG curves were not different at 0 MPa. hPEG for barley and vetch was within [0, -0.01] MPa. While no differences were observed between PEG at [0, -0.01] MPa and TG-loam curves, TG-sand curves at -0.002 and -0.006 MPa were different to those of PEG. Conversely to PEG at -0.01 MPa, no imbibition was observed in TG-sand (-0.006 MPa). A negligible influence of h in TG-loam was observed.PEG is not adequate to describe seed germination in soil. But the TG allows monitoring seed germination in real soils and controlled h.Conclusions: Germination as a function of soil water potential (h) is modelled using polyethylene glycol (PEG). But, PEG would not consider soil properties. Our objective is to show the limitations of PEG to model germination in real soils. Using a new device, the tension germinator (TG), we show the interaction between soil type, h and seed characteristics on seed germination.TG (A Mariotte reservoir that supplies water at constant h to a porous substrate on which seeds are deposited). Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and vetch (Vicia sativa L.) seeds were placed on TG with loam (TG-loam) and sand (TG-sand), and h of 0, -0.002, -0.006 MPa. Then, the imbibition curves were monitored. PEG experiments (0 to -2.5 MPa) were performed to estimate the critical h, hPEG, or h from which the imbibition curve decreases compared with that at 0 MPa. PEG curves for 0 > h > -0.01 MPa were compared with TG.PEG and TG curves were not different at 0 MPa. hPEG for barley and vetch was within [0, -0.01] MPa. While no differences were observed between PEG at [0, -0.01] MPa and TG-loam curves, TG-sand curves at -0.002 and -0.006 MPa were different to those of PEG. Conversely to PEG at -0.01 MPa, no imbibition was observed in TG-sand (-0.006 MPa). A negligible influence of h in TG-loam was observed.PEG is not adequate to describe seed germination in soil. But the TG allows monitoring seed germination in real soils and controlled h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • This work analyses the influence of the β on the estimate of K and S. • Early infiltration times (i.e. 100 s) promoted good estimations for S. • Longer infiltrations (i.e. 1.000 s) were required to estimate accurately K s. • Only very long infiltration (i.e. 10.000 s) allowed defining the actual β value. • S and K s can be accurately estimated using a constant β. Abstract Soil water infiltration can be described with the quasi-analytical Haverkamp et al. (1994) equation, defined by the hydraulic conductivity (K s), sorptivity (S) and the β parameter. K s and S are commonly estimated from the transient cumulative infiltration curve, using a constant β value. The objective of this work was to study the influence of β on the estimation of K s and S. The study was first performed on synthetic 1-D infiltration curves generated at different infiltration times for loam sandy, loamy and silty soils, and next extrapolated to a 3-D loam synthetic soil and on 10 infiltrations curves measured on the field with a disc infiltrometer on different types of soils. The infiltration measurements lasted between 600 and 900 s. The results showed that, while early infiltration times (i.e. 100 s) promoted good estimations for S , longer infiltrations (i.e. 1.000 s) were required to estimate accurately K s. Only very long infiltration (i.e. 10.000 s) allowed defining the actual β value. A similar behaviour was observed for the 3-D infiltration measurements. Except for β , significant relationships (R2 = 0.99) were obtained between the K s and S of the three theoretical soils and the corresponding values calculated by optimizing the three hydraulic parameters on 2.000 s 1-D infiltration curves. The large confidence interval observed in β (between 0.3 and 2.0) resulted from the fact that β had a small effect on the infiltration curve. A significant relationship (R2 = 0.99) was also obtained between the K s and S optimized from the experimental curves using a β = 1.1 and the corresponding values obtained by simultaneous optimization of the three hydraulic parameters. These results demonstrated that S and K s can be accurately estimated using a constant β and that downward infiltration is not an appropriate procedure to estimate β. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The soil sorptivity, S , which is defined as a measure of the capacity of a porous medium to absorb or desorb liquid by capillarity, is commonly estimated under laboratory conditions from upward infiltration measurements. The objective of this work is to compare different methods to estimate S from a single upward infiltration curve obtained from both theoretical and experimental soils. An additional analysis of the influence of synthetic infiltration noise on the estimation of S was also performed on the theoretical soils. Five different methods were compared: Short Time model for horizontal infiltration (ST), the Cumulative Linearization method (CL) and the Differentiated Linearization (DL) linear regressions models, Short-time (SIM) methods that use the simplified Haverkamp et al. (1994) model, and Complete-time (CIM) upward infiltration method that uses the quasi-analytical Haverkamp et al. (1994) function. Since finite soil columns were considered, the saturated hydraulic conductivity needed to estimate S with the Haverkamp et al. (1994) model was calculated from an overpressure step at the end of the water absorption process, using the Darcy's law. The methods were contrasted on four theoretical and six sieved experimental soils, ranging from sand to clay textures. Although all methods showed acceptable estimates of S on clean theoretical upward infiltration curves, the ST, SIM and CIM were the methods that gave significant ( p < 0.001) regression analysis on noisied infiltration curves, and only SIM and CIM presented a relative error < 1%. From these results we can conclude that although acceptable approaches of S were obtained with the simplest ST method, the CIM procedure was the most accurate method to estimate S in both clean and noised theoretical and experimental upward infiltration curves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The water retention curve ( θ ( h )), which defines the relationship between the volumetric water content ( θ ) and the matric potential ( h ), is of paramount importance to characterize the hydraulic behaviour of soils. Because current methods to estimate θ ( h ) are, in general, tedious and time consuming, alternative procedures to determine θ ( h ) are needed. Using an upward infiltration curve, the main objective of this work is to present a method to determine the parameters of the van Genuchten (1980) water retention curve ( α and n ) from the sorptivity ( S ) and the β parameter defined in the 1D infiltration equation proposed by Haverkamp et al. (1994). The first specific objective is to present an equation, based on the Haverkamp et al. (1994) analysis, which allows describing an upward infiltration process. Secondary, assuming a known saturated hydraulic conductivity, K s , calculated on a finite soil column by the Darcy’s law, a numerical procedure to calculate S and β by the inverse analysis of an exfiltration curve is presented. Finally, the α and n values are numerically calculated from K s , S and β . To accomplish the first specific objective, cumulative upward infiltration curves simulated with HYDRUS-1D for sand, loam, silt and clay soils were compared to those calculated with the proposed equation, after applying the corresponding β and S calculated from the theoretical K s , α and n . The same curves were used to: (i) study the influence of the exfiltration time on S and β estimations, (ii) evaluate the limits of the inverse analysis, and (iii) validate the feasibility of the method to estimate α and n . Next, the θ ( h ) parameters estimated with the numerical method on experimental soils were compared to those obtained with pressure cells. The results showed that the upward infiltration curve could be correctly described by the modified Haverkamp et al. (1994) equation. While S was only affected by early-time exfiltration data, the β parameter had a significant influence on the long-time exfiltration curve, which accuracy increased with time. The 1D infiltration model was only suitable for β < 1.7 (sand, loam and silt). After omitting the clay soil, an excellent relationship (R 2 = 0.99, p < 0.005) was observed between the theoretical α and n values of the synthetic soils and those estimated from the inverse analysis. Consistent results, with a significant relationship (p < 0.001) between the n values estimated with the pressure cell and the upward infiltration analysis, were also obtained on the experimental soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This method estimated K s , θ s , n and α dr of a soil column by inverse analysis. • 1D infiltration followed by successive steady-states drainages were measured. • The drainage curves are generated by a differential h between the top and the bottom. • The method was tested on 2.5 cm high synthetic and experimental soil columns. • Accurate estimates of θ s , K s , α dr and n were obtained. Determination of the saturated hydraulic conductivity, K s , and the water retention curve, θ(h) , is of paramount importance to characterize the hydraulic behavior of the vadose zone. Given the van Genuchten hydraulic model, defined by the residual, θ r , and saturated, θ s , volumetric water content and the α and n parameters, this work presents a new laboratory procedure to estimate K s , θ s , n and α for a drainage process, α dr , from the inverse analysis of successive drainage steady-states curves generated by a tension-gradient between the surface and the base of a soil column. To this end, a double disc system, one connected a bubbling tower and placed at the soil surface and the second one placed under the soil core, was employed. The second disc was connected to an air-vacuum system. The experiment presented two parts: a first 1D downward infiltration at saturation on a dry soil column, followed by successive drainage steps. During the drainage process, the tension of the upper and lower discs varied between 0 and −5 cm, and from −5 to −100 cm, respectively. The soil sorptivity, S , and θ s were calculated from the 1D transient infiltration measure, K s was calculated by Darcy's law, α dr and n were optimized from the inverse analysis of the steady-state curves under tension-gradient and α for a wetting process, α w , was calculated from previously obtained S , θ s , K s and n. Once K s estimated, α dr and n were optimized by minimizing the Q = h b - h n objective function, where h b and h n are the experimental and calculated tensions at the base of the soil core. Given a α dr value, the optimimum n was computed as the value that provides a minimum Q. By repeating this process for a sequence of α dr , different Q -isolines were obtained, one for each h b value, which crossing-point corresponded to the actual α dr and n values. The method was tested on 2.5 cm high columns of four different synthetic soils. Next, it was applied on an experimental sand column of 5 cm height and on 2.5 cm high columns filled with sieved loam, clay loam and clay soil. The estimated α dr and n were compared with corresponding values measured in the same soils with the pressure plate technique and α w was contrasted with the corresponding value calculated with an empirical hysteresis model. The method, which was fast (from 1 to 2 h) and easy to implement for small-scale experiments, was successfully applied to soil samples 2.5 cm high and allowed to explore a range of soil tensions from 0 to −100 cm. Overall, accurate estimates of θ s , K s , α dr and n were obtained in both synthetic and experimental soils. A significant relationship was also obtained between α w estimated from S and the corresponding value calculated from the hysteresis model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This work presents an upward infiltration method to estimate K PF = K T - K s. • K s and K T are measured from the transient infiltration and an overpressure step. • It was satisfactorily validated on packed soil with and artificial PF channel. • It was applied on soil cores collected from a grazing and tillage experiment. • 5, 35 and 60% of soil cores presented significant, moderate and negligible PF. Soil water preferential flow, PF, is the phenomenon where water moves along certain pathways, while bypassing a fraction of the porous matrix. This work presents a laboratory procedure to estimate the hydraulic conductivity of the soil water preferential flow, K PF. Using an upward infiltration curve followed by an over-pressure step, K PF is calculated as the difference between the total hydraulic conductivity, K T , measured with the constant head method, and the soil matrix hydraulic conductivity, K s , calculated from the inverse analysis of the transient upward infiltration curve. Previous to this analysis, a new approach to detect and remove the effect of possible overpressures due to the soil core placement on the sorptivimeter on the hydraulic properties estimate was presented. This consisted on searching the best fitting between the experimental infiltration curve after removing successive early time steps and the corresponding simulated function. The method to estimate K PF was validated on four different 5-cm height soil columns packed with 2-mm sieved clay loam and loam soils traversed longitudinally by a closed/opened pipe of 1.5 mm and 2.5 mm internal diameter, respectively. This same experiment was also repeated on the same soils without artificial preferential channel. Next, the method was applied on 20 undisturbed soil cores collected from two fields with different grazing intensity and soil tillage management (conventional, CT, reduced, RT and no-tillage, NT, practices). Results showed that correction made to remove the infiltration curve jump due to an overpressure step allowed more accurate and realistic estimates of the soil matrix hydraulic properties. On the other hand, both K T and K s , which could be satisfactorily calculated from a single upward infiltration curve followed by an overpressure step, where satisfactorily employed to quantify K PF. While no significant effect of grazing intensity on K PF was observed, the CT K PF was significantly larger than those obtained in RT and NT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Effect of grazing on soil hydraulic properties of gypseous soils were studied. • Three grazing intensities, High, Medium and Low, were compared. • Soil surface S and K c and subsurface ρ b , K s , θ s , α and n were measured. • H presented the highest ρ b and the lowest K c values. • In semiarid gypseous soils M did not have a negative effect of soil properties. Although is well known that grazing has a significant effect on the soil hydraulic properties and through them on the pasture productivity in semi-arid regions, there is still little data about the effect of this management on soils with high gypsum content. This work compares the effect of three increasing grazing intensities (low, medium, and high) on the hydraulic properties of the upper soil layers, measured on two areas with increasing gypsum content (56 and 73%, respectively) located in a semi-arid region of the Middle Ebro Valley (NE, Spain). 90 soil samplings were taken on bare soil surface areas. The measured soil parameters included the saturated sorptivity (S c) and hydraulic conductivity (K c) of the soil surface layer and the soil bulk density (ρ b), saturated hydraulic conductivity (K s), saturated volumetric water content, θ s , and α and n parameters of the water retention curve of the 1–8 cm depth soil layer. Increasing gypsum content increased the soil water infiltration but did not affect the water retention capacity and total porosity. All studied gypseous soils presented low water retention. High grazing intensities decreased the soil water infiltration. While soils with high gypsum content tended to attenuate the effect of the livestock trampling on ρ b , a significant influence of grazing on ρ b was observed in the fields with moderate soil gypsum content. No effect of livestock trampling on the soil water retention characteristics was observed. Moderate grazing, which did not show negative effects on the soil hydro-physical properties, could be an acceptable management for soil conservation in these semiarid regions of soils with high gypsum content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hydro-physical properties of gypseous soils, which are commonly associated with dry climates, determine the productivity of rangelands and croplands. The objective of this paper is to study, in the semiarid central Ebro Basin, NE Spain, some hydro-physical properties of gypseous soils under five different contrasted soil managements: soils of ungrazed (N) and grazed (GR) uncultivated lands, and freshly moldboard tilled (MB), cropped (C), and fallowed (F) agricultural soils. The gypsum content of the studied soils, with concentrations that are natural, ranged from 50 to 92%. The soil bulk density (ρb), saturated sorptivity (S10), hydraulic conductivity (K10), and the water retention curve (WRC) of undisturbed soil samples from the 0–10 cm deep soil layer after removing the soil surface crust were calculated. Soil penetration resistance (SPR) for the upper 10 cm soil layer was also measured. Additional measurements of soil surface crust sorptivity (Scrust) and hydraulic conductivity (Kcrust) were conducted. Livestock trampling in GR promoted the highest ρband SPR values. The lack of soil disturbance in N caused that this treatment showed the lowest values ofScrustandKcrust, but the highestS10andK10. The specific behavior of gypseous soils, whose loose aggregates easily collapse during the soil wetting process, showed that the MB freshly tilled soil produced the lowest values ofS10andK10. A typical bimodal function of the WRC was found. Pore size distribution was affected by the soil treatment, with the highest and lowest values under MB and GR treatments, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

• A method to estimate θ s , α , n and K s from an upward infiltration is presented. • The influence of θ s, θ r and h i , on the α , n and K s optimization was studied. • It was applied to 50 mm high undisturbed cores under different soil management. • θ s and h i affected α , n and K s , and h i should be located the d θ dh ≈ 0 region. • It was sensible to different texture and structure due to the soil management. Estimation of the α and n van Genuchten (1980) parameters and the saturated hydraulic conductivity, K s , of undisturbed soil samples is critical for realistic water flow simulations in the vadose zone. Given the Latorre and Moret-Fernández (2019) method, which allows estimating K s , α and n from the inverse analysis of a single upward infiltration, the objective of this work is to advance on the theoretical understanding of this method and to apply it on undisturbed soil cores. To this end, the influence of the saturated, θ s , and residual, θ r , water content and initial soil tension, h i , on the α , n and K s optimization was first studied on synthetic soils. A procedure to simultaneously estimate θ s , α , n and K s , which consisted on optimizing α , n and K s for a range of θ s values, was proposed. To this end, α , n and K s were optimized leaving each θ s as a fixed value. The method was next applied to experimental curves measured from sieved and undisturbed soil cores of 50 mm high and diameter, sampled the last ones from three fields with different management: bare vs. under plant soil; agricultural soil under conservation vs. conventional tillage; and overburden soil from mine vs. topsoil formed by the original soil. Results showed that θ s had an important effect on α , n and K s optimization, where the minimum error within the selected θ s interval corresponded to the theoretical θ s. An important effect of h i on the optimization was also observed. However, this influence was omitted by using a h i value located in the θ r region, where d θ dh ≈ 0. Under this assumption, θ r only affected the θ s optimization, which value varied with θ r. A robust relationship (R2 = 0.99; p < 0.0001) was found between theoretical and optimized θ s , K s and α and n calculated for the synthetic soils. Thus, the method allowed estimating four of the five van Genuchten (1980) parameters. An absolute minimum was also observed when the method was applied on experimental infiltration curves. The θ s measured gravimetrically on the undisturbed samples was, on average, 8.1% higher than the optimized one. Overall, the method allowed detecting significant differences (p < 0.05) in hydraulic properties between bare and under plant soils and among tillage treatments. The large variability found in the mine's soils prevented to find significant differences within this scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]