Intensity and persistence of water repellency in relation to vegetation types and soil parameters in Mediterranean SW Spain

Abstract The objectives of this research are the following: [1] to study the persistence and intensity of water repellency in soil samples (0–5 cm deep) collected under different plant species, [2] to analyze the relationships between soil water repellency and environmental factors including soil organic matter content, soil acidity, and texture, and [3] to study the variations of soil water repellency measured on soil samples collected in winter (2007) and summer (2008) in the studied area. Soil water repellency has been studied in Mediterranean coniferous and eucalyptus forests, particularly after burning, but the number of studies concerning other Mediterranean forest systems is still very low. In this paper, soil water repellency was measured by using the water drop penetration time test and the ethanol percentage test on samples collected during the winter of 2007 and the summer of 2008 under different land uses (pines, cork oaks, eucalyptus, heathland and olive trees) in a Mediterranean subhumid forested area (Los Alcornocales Natural Park, Cadiz and Malaga, Spain). Most of the soil samples collected under heathland showed extreme water repellency, whereas soils under olive trees showed low or inexistent water repellency. The organic matter content and acidity were highly correlated with water repellency in soils under pines, cork oaks and eucalyptus, while soils under heathland or olive trees showed poorer correlations. The average soil moisture content of samples collected during winter (2007) was 20.7 ± 7.9%, and it decreased in samples collected during summer (2008) to 1.1 ± 0.6%. The persistence and intensity of water repellency varied slightly between samples collected in winter and summer in soils under all species except under heathland. Water repellency persisted in most cases during the wet and dry season, and many soils showed strong water repellency even during winter. The patchy patterns of persistence and intensity of soil water repellency are conditioned by the spatial distribution of the studied land uses, which dictate the intensity and persistence of soil water repellency, and modulated by other environmental factors. The vegetation effects on soil hydrology should be considered for afforestation work and flooding control.

[1]  J. Letey,et al.  Indices for Characterizing Soil-Water Repellency Based upon Contact Angle-Surface Tension Relationships , 1970 .

[2]  Sarah A. Lewis,et al.  Assessing burn severity and comparing soil water repellency, Hayman Fire, Colorado , 2006 .

[3]  C. Ritsema,et al.  Variation in water content and wetting patterns in Dutch water repellent peaty clay and clayey peat soils , 1996 .

[4]  C. Ritsema,et al.  Water Repellency and Critical Soil Water Content in a Dune Sand , 2001 .

[5]  A. Walkley,et al.  AN EXAMINATION OF THE DEGTJAREFF METHOD FOR DETERMINING SOIL ORGANIC MATTER, AND A PROPOSED MODIFICATION OF THE CHROMIC ACID TITRATION METHOD , 1934 .

[6]  C. Ritsema,et al.  Occurrence of soil water repellency in arid and humid climates , 2000 .

[7]  B. Holmbom,et al.  Chemical Composition of Lipophilic and Phenolic Constituents of Barks from Pinus nigra, Abies bornmülleriana and Castanea sativa , 2002 .

[8]  P. Jungerius,et al.  Variability of water repellence in the dunes along the Dutch coast , 1989 .

[9]  R. Shakesby,et al.  Soil water repellency: its causes, characteristics and hydro-geomorphological significance , 2000 .

[10]  J. Verstraten,et al.  Humus form development and hillslope runoff, and the effects of fire and management, under Mediterranean forest in NE-Spain , 1989 .

[11]  D. Mcghie,et al.  The Effect of Plant Top Material on the Water Repellence of Fired Sands and Water Repellent Soils , 1981 .

[12]  B. Carbon,et al.  Water repellence in sandy soils of South-Western Australia. II. Some chemical characteristics of the hydrophobic skins , 1972 .

[13]  G. Guggenberger,et al.  Seasonal variations in the chemical composition of dissolved organic matter in organic forest floor layer leachates of old-growth Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) stands in northeastern Bavaria, Germany , 2001 .

[14]  D. Mcghie,et al.  Water repellence of a heavy-textured Western Australian surface soil. , 1980 .

[15]  D. Richardson,et al.  Water repellency in a dry sclerophyll eucalypt forest — measurements and processes , 1991 .

[16]  C. Guerrero,et al.  Can terra rossa become water repellent by burning? A laboratory approach , 2008 .

[17]  S. Doerr.  On standardizing the ‘Water Drop Penetration Time’ and the ‘Molarity of an Ethanol Droplet’ techniques to classify soil hydrophobicity: A case study using medium textured soils , 1998 .

[18]  S. Shapiro,et al.  A Comparative Study of Various Tests for Normality , 1968 .

[19]  D. Hubbell,et al.  High Humidity-induced Increase in Water Repellency in Some Sandy Soils1 , 1985 .

[20]  P. Pulkkinen,et al.  Seasonal Variation in the Content of Hydrolyzable Tannins, Flavonoid Glycosides, and Proanthocyanidins in Oak Leaves , 2004, Journal of Chemical Ecology.

[21]  A. Carballeira.  Phenolic inhibitors inErica australis L. and in associated soil , 1980, Journal of Chemical Ecology.

[22]  B. Marquez-Garcia,et al.  Phenolics composition in Erica sp. differentially exposed to metal pollution in the Iberian Southwestern Pyritic Belt. , 2009, Bioresource technology.

[23]  Jan M. H. Hendrickx,et al.  Preferential flow mechanism in a water repellent sandy soil , 1993 .

[24]  S. Doerr,et al.  Critical conditions for the wetting of soils , 2006 .

[25]  W. McGill,et al.  Flexible conformation in organic matter coatings: an hypothesis about soil water repellency. , 2000 .

[26]  G. Wessolek,et al.  Determination of repellency distribution using soil organic matter and water content , 2005 .

[27]  I. Moore,et al.  Soil hydrophobic effects on infiltration and catchment runoff , 1989 .

[28]  R. Harper,et al.  Relationships of water repellency to soil properties for different spatial scales of study , 1998 .

[29]  J. V. Witter,et al.  Modelling water erosion and the impact of water repellency , 1991 .

[30]  Artemi Cerdà,et al.  Influence of vegetation recovery on soil hydrology and erodibility following fire: an 11-year investigation , 2005 .

[31]  S. López,et al.  Comparison between analytical methods and biological assays for the assessment of tannin-related antinutritive effects in some Spanish browse species , 2004 .

[32]  X. Pang,et al.  Approaches to characterize the degree of water repellency , 2000 .

[33]  P. King.  Comparison of methods for measuring severity of water repellence of sandy soils and assessment of some factors that affect its measurement. , 1981 .

[34]  E. Cadahía,et al.  Polyphenolic Composition of Wood Extracts from Eucalyptus camaldulensis, E. globulus and E. rudis , 1995 .

[35]  R. Shakesby,et al.  Spatial variability of soil hydrophobicity in fire-prone eucalyptus and pine forests, Portugal , 1998 .

[36]  Giovanni Pardini,et al.  Relative influence of wildfire on soil properties and erosion processes in different Mediterranean environments in NE Spain. , 2004, The Science of the total environment.

[37]  M. Rodríguez-Alleres,et al.  Estimation of soil water repellency of different particle size fractions in relation with carbon content by different methods. , 2007, The Science of the total environment.

[38]  M. Rillig.  A connection between fungal hydrophobins and soil water repellency , 2005 .

[39]  E. Cadahía,et al.  Polyphenolic composition of Quercus suber cork from different Spanish provenances , 1998 .

[40]  Conjugate Distributions for Incomplete Observations , 1974 .

[41]  H. Gerke,et al.  Spatial variability of potential water repellency in a lignitic mine soil afforested with Pinus nigra , 2001 .

[42]  Morton B. Brown,et al.  Robust Tests for the Equality of Variances , 1974 .

[43]  J. Oades,et al.  Hydrophobic properties and chemical characterisation of natural water repellent materials in Australian sands , 2000 .

[44]  James P. Terry,et al.  Wildfire Impacts on Soil Erosion and Hydrology in Wet Mediterranean Forest, Portugal , 1993 .

[45]  J. Letey.  Causes and consequences of fire‐induced soil water repellency , 2001 .

[46]  L. Debano.  Water repellent soils: a state-of-the-art , 1981 .

[47]  J. Lorite,et al.  Macrofungi diversity in cork-oak and holm-oak forests in Andalusia (southern Spain); an efficient parameter for establishing priorities for its evaluation and conservation , 2007, Central European Journal of Biology.

[48]  D. Scott.  Soil wettability in forested catchments in South Africa , 2003 .

[49]  Jorge Mataix-Solera,et al.  Hydrophobicity and aggregate stability in calcareous topsoils from fire-affected pine forests in southeastern Spain , 2004 .

[50]  C. J. Ritsema,et al.  Occurrence, prediction and hydrological effects of water repellency amongst major soil and land‐use types in a humid temperate climate , 2006 .

[51]  Coen J. Ritsema,et al.  Preferential flow paths in a water repellent clay soil with grass cover , 1996 .

[52]  M. Schnitzer,et al.  THE SURFACE TENSION OF AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS OF SOIL HUMIC SUBSTANCES , 1978 .

[53]  A. C. Imeson,et al.  The effects of fire and water repellency on infiltration and runoff under Mediterranean type forest , 1992 .

[54]  L. Persson,et al.  Water Repellence of Cultivated Organic Soils , 1996 .

[55]  G. Schaumann,et al.  Properties of soil organic matter and aqueous extracts of actually water repellent and wettable soil samples , 2006 .

[56]  Artemi Cerdà,et al.  Soil hydrological response under simulated rainfall in the Dehesa land system (Extremadura, SW Spain) under drought conditions , 1998 .

[57]  A. Thomas,et al.  The role of soil moisture in controlling water repellency: new evidence from forest soils in Portugal , 2000 .

[58]  D. Horne,et al.  Soil Water Repellency , 1992 .

[59]  M. E. Varela,et al.  Impact of wildfires on surface water repellency in soils of northwest Spain , 2005 .

[60]  L. Martínez-Zavala,et al.  Influence of different plant species on water repellency in Mediterranean heathland soils , 2009 .

[61]  Stefan H. Doerr,et al.  The erosional impact of soil hydrophobicity: current problems and future research directions , 2000 .

[62]  H. B. Mann,et al.  On a Test of Whether one of Two Random Variables is Stochastically Larger than the Other , 1947 .

[63]  G. Wessolek,et al.  Hydraulic functions and water repellency of forest floor horizons on sandy soils , 2006 .

[64]  Richard J. Harper,et al.  A multivariate framework for interpreting the effects of soil properties, soil management and landuse on water repellency , 2000 .

[65]  H. Preisler,et al.  Prescribed burning effects on soil physical properties and soil water repellency in a steep chaparral watershed, southern California, USA , 2006 .

[66]  P. Møldrup,et al.  Soil water repellency: effects of water content, temperature, and particle size , 1999 .

[67]  P. Hallett,et al.  Impact of fungal and bacterial biocides on microbial induced water repellency in arable soil , 2006 .

[68]  Chao-Yuan Lin,et al.  Water repellency of Casuarina windbreaks (Casuarina equisetifolia Forst.) caused by fungi in central Taiwan , 2006 .

[69]  L. Debano.  Water repellency in soils: a historical overview , 2000 .

[70]  C. Ritsema,et al.  Water repellency of soils; the influence of ambient relative humidity , 2002 .

[71]  A. Mallik,et al.  Soil water repellency in regularly burned Calluna heathlands: comparison of three measuring techniques , 1985 .

[72]  A. Jordán,et al.  Heterogeneity in soil hydrological response from different land cover types in southern Spain , 2008 .

[73]  Coen J. Ritsema,et al.  How water moves in a water repellent sandy soil: 2. Dynamics of fingered flow , 1994 .

[74]  Coen J. Ritsema,et al.  How water moves in a water repellent sandy soil: 1. Potential and actual water repellency , 1994 .

[75]  F. Stagnitti,et al.  Extraction of compounds associated with water repellency in sandy soils of different origin , 2005 .

[76]  M. E. Varela,et al.  Deforestation of water‐repellent soils in Galicia (NW Spain): effects on surface runoff and erosion under simulated rainfall , 2003 .

[77]  A. M. Mayoral,et al.  Water repellency under different plant species in a calcareous forest soil in a semiarid Mediterranean environment , 2007 .

[78]  R. Shakesby,et al.  Soil water repellency as a potential parameter in rainfall‐runoff modelling: experimental evidence at point to catchment scales from Portugal , 2003 .

[79]  P. Jungerius,et al.  Water erosion in the dunes. , 1990 .

[80]  G. Giovannini,et al.  EFFECT OF FIRE ON HYDROPHOBIC AND CEMENTING SUBSTANCES OF SOIL AGGREGATES1 , 1983 .

[81]  R. Bond,et al.  The influence of the microflora on the physical properties of soils. I. Effects associated with filamentous algae and fungi , 1964 .

[82]  J. Keizer,et al.  Temporal variation in topsoil water repellency in two recently burnt eucalypt stands in north-central Portugal , 2008 .

[83]  W. Kruskal,et al.  Use of Ranks in One-Criterion Variance Analysis , 1952 .

[84]  P. Blackwell.  Improving sustainable production from water repellent sands , 1993 .

[85]  Louis W. Dekker,et al.  Water repellency of sieve fractions from sandy soils and relationships with organic material and soil structure , 1993 .

[86]  Hideyuki Ito,et al.  Dimeric and trimeric hydrolyzable tannins from Quercus coccifera and Quercus suber. , 2002, Journal of natural products.

[87]  A. Wessel.  On using the effective contact angle and the water drop penetration time for classification of water repellency in dune soils , 1988 .

[88]  O. Bens,et al.  Water repellency in sandy luvisols under different forest transformation stages in northeast Germany , 2002 .

[89]  D. Scott,et al.  Soil wettability in forested catchments in South Africa; as measured by different methods and as affected by vegetation cover and soil characteristics , 2000 .

[90]  D. A. Hamilton,et al.  Translocation of Hydrophobic Substances into Soil by Burning Organic Litter , 1970 .