The hydrology of Vertosols used for cotton production: I. Hydraulic, structural and fundamental soil properties

Abstract

This paper describes the hydraulic, structural and fundamental soil properties for 23 Vertosol horizons from 18 sampling sites in New South Wales and southern Queensland. At each site a combination of infiltration measurements and soil sampling was conducted. Samples were collected for determination of the soil water characteristic, shrink–swell relationships, and fundamental soil properties such as particle size distributions, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), exchangeable cations (Ca2+, Mg2+, K+, Na+), extractable P contents, extractable sulfate and Fe contents, and CaCO3 and total C contents. Large cores were sampled, impregnated with resin, and sectioned for image analysis. The program SOLICON v2.1 was used to calculate structural form parameters from the images. Measured hydraulic conductivities of the surface soils were large compared with earlier reported research for Vertosols. However, a sharp decrease in hydraulic conductivity occurred with depth in the profiles, which is assumed to be due to increased bulk densities and exchangeable sodium percentages (ESP). The data also indicated a general north–south trend in the structural development of these Vertosols. Surface soils from the northern areas, such as the Gwydir and Namoi valleys, exhibited more porous structural forms, and as a result, greater average hydraulic conductivities. This appears to be due to differences in ESP, clay content and the mineralogical suite of the clay; surface samples with smaller ESPs and larger proportions of smectitic clay tended to have the greatest values of hydraulic conductivity. Other fundamental soil properties such as extractable Fe and P contents, and CaCO3 content, were found to have little or no correlation to the hydraulic or structural properties of these Vertosols, while differences in measured shrink-swell and water retention properties were largely a function of soil depth. The database developed has given an overview of the hydraulic properties of Vertosols used for cotton production in south-eastern Australia.