Quantifying Spatial and Temporal Heterogeneity of Soil Cracking to Model Watershed Surface Hydrology
| Name | Title | |
|---|---|---|
| Dr. Cristine Morgan | Project Leader | cmorgan@ag.tamu.edu |
| Dr. Kevin McInnes | Co-PI | KMcInnes@ag.tamu.edu |
| Dr. Andrea Kishne | Post Doc. | AKishne@ag.tamu.edu |
| Takele Dinka | PhD Student | takele_72@tamu.edu |
| Leo Rivera | MS Student | LRivera@ag.tamu.edu |
Overall Objective:
Shrink-swell properties Vertisols have an impact on a watershed hydrology, which influences the flow rate of water and pollutants into a soil and/or surface water. Therefore the goal is to characterize, quantify and model, both temporally and spatially (across catena and depth), shrink-swell behavior Vertisols. This contributes to the study and better understanding of a watershed hydrology and to a sustainable water management.
Specific Objectives:
- Quantify cracking behavior across a Houston Black catena
- Compare estimates of crack volume in two Texas Vertisols
- Quantify and model, both temporally and spatially (across catena and depth), shrink-swell behavior of a Vertisol under different vegetations
- Develop a smart sampling strategy for quantifying hydraulic conductivity of benchmark soil series under different management and landscape conditions
Results:
- Rivera, L. and C.L.S. Morgan. Comparing Methods of Estimating Crack Volume in Shrink-Swell Soils. Undergraduate Research Thesis, TAMU. 2008
Funding:
- Texas NRCS Soil Survey
Presentations
- Rivera, L., C.L.S. Morgan A. Kishne, C.T. Hallmark. 2008. Estimating Crack Volume in Two Texas Vertisols. Southern Regional Cooperative Soil Survey Conference. Gainsville, FL.
- Rivera, L., C.L.S. Morgan A. Kishne, C.T. Hallmark. 2008. Estimating Crack Volume in Two Shrink-Swell Soils. Soil Survey and Land Resources Workshop. College Station, TX.
For more Information on this project contact: Dr. Cristine Morgan cmorgan@ag.tamu.edu