Imaging soil pore characteristics using computed tomography as influenced by agroecosystems

Year 2018, Volume: 7 Issue: 3, 192 - 202, 01.07.2018

Melis Cercioglu

https://doi.org/10.18393/ejss.396237

Cited By: 2

Abstract

Soil
pore parameters are important for water infiltration into the soil and
transport within the soil. The aim of this study was to compare influences of
agroecosystems on soil pore characteristics (number of pores, macropores,
coarse mesopores, porosity, macroporosity, coarse mesoporosity, pore
circularity) using computed tomography (CT). This experiment was carried out
four different agroecosystem field [Tucker Prairie (TP): native prairie, Prairie
Fork (PF): restored prairie, Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), and row crop
(RC): corn/soybean rotation] in Missouri state of United States during the
year of 2017. Undisturbed soil samples were collected at four soil depths
(0-10, 10-20, 20-30, and 30-40 cm) from each treatment with three replications. Five
scan images from each sample were acquired using a X-ray CT scanner with 0.19
by 0.19 mm pixel resolution with 0.5 mm slice thickness and analyzed with Image-J. TP, PF, CRP, and RC treatments
had 195, 88, 112, and 49 pores on a 2500 mm² area, respectively
across all the depths. Soil under TP and CRP treatment had significantly higher
porosity (0.046 m³ m^-3, 0.046 m³ m^-3),
and macroporosity (0.036 m³ m^-3, 0.041 m³ m^-3)
values than other treatments. The CT-measured number of macropores (>1000
μm diam.) were 5 times higher for TP when compared with RC treatment. The
CT-measured pore circularity values were lower for CRP and RC treatments.
CT-measured number of coarse mesopores, and mesoporosity were significantly
greater under TP treatment. Results
show that native prairie can improve soil pore parameters.

Keywords

Agroecosystems, computed tomograpy, Image-J, soil pore

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