Porosity of Surface Soil Aggregates at Various Moisture Contents

Porosity of individual surface soil aggregates at moisture contents ranging from saturation to air‐dry was determined by glass bead displacement. Measurements were made on aggregates having a diameter range from 0.5 to 10 mm at air‐dry moisture content and 2.0 to 10 mm at suctions ≤ 15 bars. The coefficient of variation for a determination of aggregate density (g cm‐3) ranged from 1 to 11% depending on diameter and moisture content. The major contributor to precision loss was heterogeneity of soil aggregates and not precision errors of the method. More than a 50% decrease in specific total pore volume (cm3g‐1of oven‐dry aggregate) upon desorption from saturation to air‐dry was found for three aggregate sizes each from a Chernozem and a Chestnut soil. In both soils, the percentage of pores having diameters > 29 µ increased as aggregate diameter increased. The volume fraction of air at a given moisture content increased as the diameter of aggregate increased. For all aggregate sizes, the volume fraction of air was ≥ 0.10 at 0.33 bar suction. The two soils exhibited different types of shrinkage curves.