Soil retention water Research Papers (original) (raw)

The technological effect of wheat fibre, as a healthy ingredient in which consumers are interested, was studied in surimi gel products. Three and six per cent wheat fibre with different particle sizes was added. Functional properties of... more

The technological effect of wheat fibre, as a healthy ingredient in which consumers are interested, was studied in surimi gel products. Three and six per cent wheat fibre with different particle sizes was added. Functional properties of wheat fibre, such as water retention capacity (WRC), swelling (SW) and fat adsorption capacity (FAC), were determined. Elastic modulus (G′) of surimi with 6% wheat fibre was lower throughout thermal gelling. Under scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), gel samples with added fibre presented uneven distribution of fibre. This induced the formation of a non-homogeneous protein net associated with lower gel strength, cohesiveness and water binding capacity (WBC). The sensory panel found no differences in appearance but differences in texture among samples containing different proportions and types of fibre. Fibre with large particle sizes protected surimi from loss of gel strength and hardness during freezing. There were very few variations during frozen storage of different samples.

This study analyses tests influencing the selection of nonwovens for water absorbing geocomposites. The task of the nonwoven is to capture water infiltrating into the soil and to direct it to the superabsorbent located inside. The best... more

This study analyses tests influencing the selection of nonwovens for water absorbing geocomposites. The task of the nonwoven is to capture water infiltrating into the soil and to direct it to the superabsorbent located inside. The best results in the tests of water permeability (88 mm/s) and water absorption (1116.85 g/m 2) were obtained for nonwoven of the lowest surface weight-112.8 g/m 2 and the largest average pore diameter-206.5 μm. The lowest water absorption capacity (478.91 g/m 2) and the smallest thickness changes under a load (19.3%) was noted in needle-punched nonwoven that had been subject to the calandering process. For one nonwoven, the presence of other significant fractions was noted, which proves that it is heterogeneous. For nonwovens applied in the unsaturated zone, not only water permeability should be taken into account, but also the size and fraction distribution of pores, in order to avoid breaking the continuity of capillaries.

Specific part of wide complex of flood protection measures and one of possible ways of prevention against floods and extreme droughts could be procedures realized in river headstream areas. For water retention increase in catchment source... more

Specific part of wide complex of flood protection measures and one of possible ways of prevention against floods and extreme droughts could be procedures realized in river headstream areas. For water retention increase in catchment source areas the detailed analysis of peat bogs hydrological function based on comparison of hydrological regimes in catchments with different peat land proportion needs to be done. Very good conditions for realization of this research at present is related to an existence of several water level gauges and utilization of modern equipment and methods in selected model catchments of Otava River headstream area, representing the core zone of a number of extreme floods in Central Europe (flood August 2002). In this catchment it is also possible to use first outcomes of bog pools detailed research made in recent years. Besides state profiles several automatic ultrasound and pressure water level gauges and precipitation gauges are installed in the study area an...

Abstract. Chemical and biological sedimentary records of a high alpine lake were used to reconstruct palaeoecological conditions and compared with two centuries of instrumental temperature measure-ments. Air temperature determined the... more

Abstract. Chemical and biological sedimentary records of a high alpine lake were used to reconstruct palaeoecological conditions and compared with two centuries of instrumental temperature measure-ments. Air temperature determined the lake water pH throughout the past 200 ...

The purpose of this bibliography revision study was to find as much edited information as possible about the use of hydrogels in agriculture field. All research evidenced the benefit the hydrogels as soil conditioner, improving the... more

The purpose of this bibliography revision study was to find as much edited information as possible about the use of hydrogels in agriculture field. All research evidenced the benefit the hydrogels as soil conditioner, improving the physical and hydraulic property. It is also important to mention the benefit of the hydrogel in terms of increasing of the water retention in

Background Nonlinear relationships are common in the environmental discipline. Spreadsheet packages such as Microsoft Excel come with an add-on for nonlinear regression, but parameter uncertainty estimates are not yet available. The... more

Background Nonlinear relationships are common in the environmental discipline. Spreadsheet packages such as Microsoft Excel come with an add-on for nonlinear regression, but parameter uncertainty estimates are not yet available. The purpose of this paper is to use Monte Carlo and bootstrap methods to estimate nonlinear parameter uncertainties with a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. As an example, uncertainties of two parameters (α and n) for a soil water retention curve are estimated. Results The fitted parameters generally do not follow a normal distribution. Except for the upper limit of α using the bootstrap method, the lower and upper limits of α and n obtained by these two methods are slightly greater than those obtained using the SigmaPlot software which linearlizes the nonlinear model. Conclusions Since the linearization method is based on the assumption of normal distribution of parameter values, the Monte Carlo and bootstrap methods may be preferred to the linearization method.

Tomato processing residue is defined as a secondary raw material that can increase its value, being considered a potential source of dietary fiber and bioactive compounds. Commercial tomato peel fiber has been analyzed to ascertain the... more

Tomato processing residue is defined as a secondary raw material that can increase its value, being considered a potential source of dietary fiber and bioactive compounds. Commercial tomato peel fiber has been analyzed to ascertain the proximate and nutritional composition (moisture, fat, protein, dietary fiber, ash, and minerals), the fractions (insoluble, IDF, and soluble, and SDF) and sugar composition of

The soil hydraulic parameters for analyzing soil water movement can be determined by fitting a soil water retention curve to a certain function, i.e., a soil hydraulic model. For this purpose, the program "SWRC Fit," which... more

The soil hydraulic parameters for analyzing soil water movement can be determined by fitting a soil water retention curve to a certain function, i.e., a soil hydraulic model. For this purpose, the program "SWRC Fit," which performs nonlinear fitting of soil water retention curves to 5 models by Levenberg-Marquardt method, was developed. The five models are the Brooks and Corey model, the van Genuchten model, Kosugi's log-normal pore-size distribution model, Durner's bimodal pore-size distribution model, and a bimodal log-normal pore-size distribution model propose in this study. This program automatically determines all the necessary conditions for the nonlinear fitting, such as the initial estimate of the parameters, and, therefore, users can simply input the soil water retention data to obtain the necessary parameters. The program can be executed directly from a web page at http://purl.org/net/swrc/ ; a client version of the software written in numeric calculatio...

Shallow till layers typically overlay bedrock in forested areas in the boreal region. In forested tills, preferential flowpaths related to the soil structure have a decisive influence on hydrogeological properties such as the soil... more

Shallow till layers typically overlay bedrock in forested areas in the boreal region. In forested tills, preferential flowpaths related to the soil structure have a decisive influence on hydrogeological properties such as the soil hydraulic conductivity. Hydraulic conductivity is also proven to depend on the observation scale. Traditional soil core samples cannot capture the impact of soil structure on hillslope scale conductivities. Measurements and observations made at different scales, combined with simulation models, are essential for investigating conductivity properties and flow and transport processes in forest soils. This study combined a set of soil analyses and field experiments with physics-based modelling to investigate the hydraulic properties of a forested till slope in Finland. The main objective was to i) determine the saturated hydraulic conductivity in the study slope with methods related to different scales, and to ii) study the utilisation of the conductivity results in modelling flow and solute transport in the slope. Soil sampling, dye, and ion tracer experiments were conducted in a forested hillslope in Eastern Finland. In the 20 m long study section of the slope the mean slope was about 15 %. The haplic podsol profile above bedrock had a thickness of 0.8 m and was formed of sandy till. The soil was very stony and heterogeneous in terms of granularity and pore size distribution. Granularity, porosity and proportion of macropores reduced clearly with depth. Dye tracer experiments revealed three types of preferential flow routes in the slope: i) stone surfaces, ii) areas of coarse-grained soil material, and iii) decayed root channels. Both living roots and preferential flowpaths reached the transitional zone of the podsol at about 0.5 m depth, but living roots were not found to function unequivocally as preferential flowpaths. The saturated hydraulic conductivity was determined using three methods: i) from soil core samples in laboratory, ii) with Guelph permeameter in the field, iii) and by means of inverse modelling. The inverse model application was based on calibration of a one-dimensional groundwater model against data on groundwater levels in the study slope. Conductivities of the different soil horizons were adjusted to reproduce the measured groundwater levels of a recession period after artificial irrigation. Conductivity results, together with soil physical and water retention data were applied to parameterise a three-dimensional flow and advection-dispersion model. The model was used to simulate the transport of a chloride tracer plume in the study slope during artificial irrigation. A line-type irrigation source was installed upslope from the study section of the slope. Changes in groundwater levels and chloride concentrations within the study section were observed through well screens. Chloride as a conservative tracer provided an indicator for subsurface flow in the study slope. Intensive irrigation rates were applied to initiate fast lateral preferential flow. Saturated hydraulic conductivities obtained with the three methods were remarkably different. Conductivities obtained with the Guelph permeameter and the groundwater model reduced clearly with soil depth. Higher conductivities near soil surface were due to loose soil structure and preferential flowpaths. Soil core samples yielded the lowest estimates for the saturated hydraulic conductivity, as they represented the small-scale conductivity of the soil texture and soil matrix. The hillslope-scale groundwater model produced the highest estimates that characterised the large-scale structural properties and their impact on lateral preferential flow. Average saturated hydraulic conductivities in the soil core samples were 6E-6 m/s in the eluvial horizon, transition zone and subsoil, and 1E-5 m/s in the illuvial horizon. The average conductivities based on the Guelph measurements varied from 2E-5 m/s in the subsoil to 5E-5 m/s in the eluvial horizon, and based on the groundwater model from 6E-5 m/s in the subsoil to 3E-4 m/s in the eluvial horizon. The dual nature of the soil structure complicated the simulation of the chloride plume in the study slope. The closest correspondence between the observed and simulated flow velocity and concentration of the chloride plume was reached by i) using the conductivity values from the inverse groundwater model, and by ii) restricting the transport of water and solute to an active fraction of the total pore space in the model. The modelled flow velocity did not increase to the observed level with increasing conductivities, because in the highly conductive soil the irrigation intensity was no longer able to saturate the soil. As for the strength of the plume, the modelled chloride concentrations remained too low when the solution was allowed to spread to the entire pore space. The study suggests that a more accurate simulation of the fast preferential flow and chloride transport requires parallel and coupled simulation of water and solutes in the two domains of slow and fast flow.

The goal of this project was to determine the most promising co-polymerized (COP) coating for paperboard for protection against gas and water vapor transmission. The driving force for this was to create a coating that will significantly... more

The goal of this project was to determine the most promising co-polymerized (COP) coating for paperboard for protection against gas and water vapor transmission. The driving force for this was to create a coating that will significantly slow the permeation of water and water vapor through the paperboard, while retaining its mechanical properties. This was accomplished by creating high barrier co-polymerized coatings. This study focuses on the use of modified high shape factor engineered (HSFE) clays. In this study, acrylic co-monomers have been polymerized in the presence of three different, finely dispersed HSFE clays, to prepare the co-polymerized coatings. The wet coating structure was studied using Brookfield and Hercules Hi-Shear viscometers, water retention, and dispersion stability. The dry coating structure was studied using WYKO White Light Interferometry and burn out tests. The cylindrical laboratory coater (CLC)-coated samples were then tested for gas and water vapor permeability. Additionally, the optical and surface properties were determined. The CLC-coated board samples showed almost zero gas permeability and a significant reduction in water vapor transmission rate (water vapor permeability). The water vapor permeability was reduced up to 90% reflecting a one order of magnitude decrease in comparison to a commercially coated sample. The co-polymerized coating with high shape factor and thinner platelet clay displayed the lowest water vapor permeability and the best optical and surface properties, thereby making it the most promising barrier coating for solid bleached sulfate paperboard.