Depth persistence of the spatial pattern of soil–water storage along a small transect in the Loess Plateau of China

Abstract

Knowledge of the spatial patterns of soil water storage (SWS) in soil profiles is important for understanding the dynamics of soil water between surface and subsurface soil layers in semiarid area. We investigated the depth persistence of the overall and scale-specific spatial patterns of SWS for different soil layers during different seasons. Soil water contents were measured using a neutron probe on 22 occasions in 2012 and 2013 along a 1340-m transect over several sub-watersheds in the Liudaogou catchment on the Loess Plateau of China. Similarities in the spatial patterns of SWS were analyzed by Spearman's rank correlations and wavelet coherency. A spatiotemporal analysis indicated that the temporal evolution of the SWS profiles differed between the growing and non-growing seasons and that landscape position and soil texture determined the amount of SWS at each sampling location. Spearman's rank correlations were significant between any two layers within different seasons, and the correlation coefficients decreased as the distance between layers increased. Clay content controlled the spatial pattern of SWS between layers at large scales. The SWS spatial pattern had a higher depth persistence during the non-growing season than during the growing season, and the soil layer had a larger effect than season on the similarity in SWS spatial patterns. These results can improve our understanding of the hydrological processes in soil profiles and can be of considerable value in the application of hydrological models and in water management. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.