Solute Diffusivity in Undisturbed Soil: Effects of Soil Water Content and Matric Potential

Abstract

Solute diffusivity in soil plays a major role in many important processes with relation to plant growth and environmental issues. Soil solute diffusivity is affected by the volumetric water content as well as the morphological characteristics of water‐filled pores. The solute diffusivity in intact soil samples from two different tillage treatments (soil from below the depth of a harrow treatment and soil from within a moldboard plowed plow layer) was estimated based on concentration profiles using a newly developed method. The method makes use of multiple tracers (two sets of counterdiffusing tracers) for a better determination of the diffusivity. The diffusivity was higher in the below‐till soil than the plowed soil at the same soil water matric potential due to higher water content but also due to higher continuity and lower tortuosity of the soil pores. We measured identical solute diffusivities independent of the tracer set used. We analyzed the whole data set using Archie's law and found a linear relation between Archie's exponent and the logarithm of the soil water matric suction in centimeters of water (pF). An analysis of seven data sets from the literature showed that this was a general trend for soils with moderate to low clay contents.