Soil Thermal Properties under Contrasting

Soil Textures, Soil Moisture Regimes and

Water Quality

Pradip Adhikari, Manoj K. Shukla and John G. Mexal

Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences
New Mexico State University,
Las Cruces, New Mexico

Introduction
Soil thermal properties are important for irrigation management in
Southern New Mexico as evaporation loss of water is high

To understand the coupled flow of heat and moisture in the vadose

zone
Soil thermal properties is related with the soil moisture content, soil
bulk density, soil texture, organic matter content and soil salt
concentration
Anthropogenic activates such as land management practices may
alter the soil thermal properties
Different methods are used to measure the thermal properties of
soil such as dual-probe heat pulse-KD2 Pro (Decagon Devices)

Objectives:
To quantify the thermal properties (thermal conductivity; thermal
resistivity, thermal diffusivity and volumetric heat capacity)
of loamy sand, sandy loam and sandy clay loam textured soils
using tap water and lagoon treated wastewater.

Materials and Methods

USDA-JAR
Sandy Clay Loam
(Clay)
USDA-JAR
Sandy Loam
(Loam)

West Mesa
Loamy Sand
(Sand)

http://www.google.com/imgres

Fig: Soil sampling location in different locations of New Mexico

Common shrubs,
perennial, and annual
weeds in the study site

Mesquite

Snakeweed

Little gold poppy

Creosote

Littleseed muhly

Soil Sampling and Analysis

Bulk and intact core soil samples were randomly collected from
loamy sand, sandy loam and sandy clay loam textured soils at 0-20
cm depth during Summer 2010
Core soils samples form each plots were trimmed and immediately
saturated with tapwater and wastewater
Hydraulic conductivity (K) was determined by constant head
method using both tapwater and wastewater, bulk density (BD) was
calculated using core method
The soil retention curve were obtained for each soil textures at 0.3 , -1, -3, -5, -10 and -15 bars using pressure plate apparatus

 Soil thermal properties including thermal conductivity, thermal

resistivity and volumetric specific heat were measured at -0.3 , 1, -3, -5, -10 and -15 bars simultaneously before putting them in
the pressure plate apparatus using KD2 Pro (DECAGAN)
Wastewater was sampled from the holding pond and analyzed
for chemical properties pH, EC, Cl-,
NO3- and SAR.
Similarly particle size, EC, pH
and OM were also determined
using bulk soil samples

Fig. KD2 Pro with dual needle sensors

Data Analysis

All the thermal properties data and moisture content data were tested
for normality using Shapiro Wilk test at P=0.05 alpha level using
SAS
Shapiro Wilk test showed all the thermal and moisture content data
at different suctions pressure were normally distributed
T-test was performed between wastewater and tapwater treatments
at =0.05 level

Modeled Thermal Conductivity

De Vries (1963) and Cambell (1985) proposed the equation to estimate the independent
Thermal conductivity having different soil moisture content, soil bulk density and soil
texture.

= + exp[( )]
Where = thermal conductivity
X = 0.65-0.78*BD2, + 0.60BD

Y= 1.06*BD,

W=

2.6
0.5

Z = 0.03 + 0.1 BD2

E= 4, v is the volumetric water content, Cf is the clay fraction and BD is the bulk
density

Results
Soil textural, hydraulic and chemical properties of soils
Time(Years)

Sand
Loam
Clay
Time (Years)
Sand
Loam
Clay

OM
Sand
Silt
Clay
BD
--------------------------------------(%)------------------------------ (g/cm3)
0.55a
89.43 0.27a
4.19 0.12a
6.38 0.09a
1.440.02a
1.22b
80.55 0.57b
6.00 0.57b
13.72 0.57b
1.41 0.03a
0.80c
54.61 1.20c
15.33 0.88c
30.05 0.88c
1.21 0.02b
EC (1:1)
dS/m
0.25 0.01a
0.29 0.02a
0.79 0.14b

pH

Ks (WW)
(cm/h)
7.105 0.78a
6.16 1.09a
4.27 1.61c

9.09 0.15a
6.60 0.12b
7.23 0.21b

Ks (TW)
(cm/h)
8.27 2.33a
10.393.04b
6.71 4.61c

Where OM is organic mater, K s saturated hydraulic conductivity, EC is electrical conductivity BD is bulk density

Mean and standard errors of wastewater chemical properties

pH
9.550.01

EC
dS/m

Cl-

6.711.13

660.57337.60

NO3-

SAR

2.04 0.56

35.793.75

mg/L

where EC is electrical conductivity, Cl- is chloride, NO3- is nitrate, SAR is sodium adsorption ratio

Moisture Content

---------------------------------------------------Tapwater--------------------------------------------Soil Texture

saturated

-0.3 bar

-1 bar

-3 bar

-5 bar

-10 bar

-15 bar

------------------------------------cm3/cm3--------------------------------------------Sand

0.310.01a*

0.140.01a*

0.080.02a*

0.040.01a*

0.020.00a*

0.020.00a*

0.010.00a*

Loam

0.320.01a*

0.150.01a*

0.080.01a*

0.050.01a* 0.030.01a* 0.020.01a*

0.010.00a*

Clay

0.350.01b*

0.190.01b*

0.090.01a*

0.060.01a*

0.040.00a*

0.050.01b*

0.050.00a*

-------------------------------------------------Wastewater------------------------------------------Sand

0.310.01a*

0.140.01a*

0.090.01a* 0.070.01a** 0.040.01a** 0.020.01a*

0.010.01a*

Loam

0.330.01a*

0.160.01a*

0.100.01a* 0.080.01a** 0.050.01a** 0.040.01a*

0.020.01a*

Clay

0.370.01b** 0.190.01b* 0.110.01a** 0.080.01a** 0.060.01a*

0.060.01a*

0.050.01a*

Different superscript letter indicates significant differences between soil texture while different no of * indicates significance different between wastewater and tapwater
treatment at 0.05 alpha level

Volumetric Moisture Content (cm3/cm3)

Moisture Content
0.40
0.35
0.30
0.25

Tapwater

0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
0.00

Volumetric Moisture Content (cm3/cm3)

0.40
0.35
0.30

Wastewater

0.25
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
0.00
0

9
Pressure (-bars)

12

15

Measured and Calculated Thermal Conductivity

Measured thermal conductivity (W/m.K)

1.8
1.6

Sand R = 0.9368
1.4
Loam R = 0.977
1.2

Clay R = 0.9239

1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

1.4

1.6

Calculated thermal conductivity (W/m.K)

1.8

Thermal Conductivity (W/(mK)

Thermal Conductivity
Tapwater

2.00
1.60
1.20
0.80
0.40
0.00

Wastewater

Thermal Conductivity (W/(mK)

2.00
1.60
1.20
0.80
0.40
0.00
0

9
Pressure (-bars)

12

15

Thermal Resistivity
Tapwater

Thermal Restivity (mK/W)

2.50
2.00
1.50
1.00
0.50
0.00

Thermal Restivity (mK/W)

2.50

Wastewater

2.00
1.50
1.00
0.50
0.00
0

9
Pressure (-bars)

12

15

Thermal Diffusivity
Thermal Diffusivity (mm/s)

0.80

Tapwater

0.60

0.40

0.20

Thermal Diffusivity (mm/s)

0.80

Wastewater

0.60

0.40

0.20
0

9
Pressure (-bars)

12

15

Volumetric Specific Heat Capacity

Tapwater

Volumetric Heat Capacity (MJ/(mK)

3.50
3.00
2.50
2.00
1.50
1.00
0.50
0.00

Wastewater

Volumetric Heat Cpacity (MJ/(mK)

3.50
3.00
2.50
2.00
1.50
1.00
0.50
0.00
0

9
Pressure (-bars)

12

15

Conclusions
Good agreement was observed between modeled
and measured thermal conductivity

Higher values of volumetric moisture content was

for sandy clay loam soil when treated with wastewater at lower
potentials
Lower values of thermal conductivity was observed for
sandy clay loam than sandy loam and loamy sand soils
No significant difference was observed for soil thermal
properties when treated with wastewater and tapwater
Further study is necessary to observed the long term effect of
wastewater application on soil thermal properties

Acknowledgement

NMSU Agricultural Experiment Station

New Mexico Water Resource Research Institute
City of Las Cruces New Mexico