Downloaded from https://iranpaper.

ir
https://www.tarjomano.com

Geoderma 159 (2010) 262–269

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Geoderma
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / g e o d e r m a

Validation of an analytical method for determining soil hydraulic properties of stony

soils using experimental data
DongHao Ma a,b,c,⁎, MingAn Shao b, JiaBao Zhang a, QuanJiu Wang b
a
State Experimental Station of Agro-Ecosystem in Fengqiu, State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Nanjing 210008, China
b
State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China
c
Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Soil unsaturated hydraulic properties are an important input for simulations of water and solute movement
Received 28 August 2009 in the vadose zone. However, in the case of soils containing rock fragments, direct measurement of
Received in revised form 20 July 2010 unsaturated hydraulic properties remains difficult. Recently, an analytical method was proposed (Ma et al.,
Accepted 1 August 2010
2009) for determining soil hydraulic properties from horizontal water absorption experiments. Here, we test
if this method could be used in the determination of the hydraulic properties of stony soils with a set of
Keywords:
Stony soils
experiments. The results show that the method can predict accurately and quickly the hydraulic parameters
Rock fragment content of stony soils using the cumulative infiltration volume and the rate of wetting front advancement during
Soil water characteristic curve water absorption into a horizontal soil column. The influence of rock fragment content on some soil
Hydraulic conductivity hydraulic properties including air entry suction, saturated hydraulic conductivity and the shape coefficients
of hydraulic functions was further evaluated. Both air entry suction and shape coefficient show a large range
of variation with rock fragment content. Globally, the saturated hydraulic conductivities of stony soils
decreased with increasing rock fragment content. However, when the volumetric rock fragment content is
about 0.08 cm3 cm−3, the stony soil displayed a greater saturated hydraulic conductivity compared to the
fine earth at 95% confidence level. The relationship between saturated hydraulic conductivity and rock
fragment content is not accurately estimated by different equations relating saturated hydraulic conductivity
of stony soils to that of non-stony soils. These findings imply that other factors than the reduction of cross
sectional area for water flow influence the hydraulic properties of stony soils.
© 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Understanding water and solute movement in soils and ground
water has important implications for the determinations of hydrologic
processes and management of field water and nutrient conditions.
Accurate prediction of water flow and solute transport depends
largely on reliable and accurate measurement of soil hydraulic
properties (Wang et al., 2002). Many studies have been focused on
the hydraulic properties of homogeneous soils and studies on the
hydraulic properties of heterogeneous soils do not reach accurate
predictions of water flow and solute transport, especially in soils
with rock fragments. Soils containing rock fragments (N2 mm) are
⁎ Corresponding author. State Experimental Station of Agro-Ecosystem in Fengqiu,
State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China. Tel.: +86 25 8688 1262; fax: +86
25 8688 1000.
E-mail addresses: dhma@issas.ac.cn (D. Ma), mashao@ms.iswc.ac.cn (M. Shao),
jbzhang@issas.ac.cn (J. Zhang), wquanjiu@163.com (Q. Wang).
common in many areas due to soil development processes and human
actions (Poesen and Lavee, 1994). Rock fragments can reduce pore
volume available for water flow and increase the tortuosity of soil
water flow (Mehuys et al., 1975; Childs and Flint, 1990). On the other
hand, rock fragments may also create new voids at the rock fragment–
fine earth interfaces (Fies et al., 2002; Tokunaga et al., 2003) and some
rock fragment types (e.g. catogene, shale, ironstone and limestone)
can hold water (Coile, 1953; Hanson and Blevins, 1979; Brouwer and
Anderson, 2000; Cousin et al., 2003), and may provide pathways for
water flow. Therefore, the existence of rock fragments in stony soils
can lead to hydraulic properties that are highly different from those of
non-stony soils (Mehuys et al., 1975; Sharma et al., 1993; Fies et al.,
2002).
Knowledge on the hydraulic properties of stony soils is rather
limited. This is due, mainly, to the fact that no simple methods are
available for determining the unsaturated hydraulic properties of soils
containing rock fragments. The presence of rock fragments is
problematic for the measurement of water content, water potential
or water flow (Reinhart, 1961; Koshi, 1966; Fleming et al., 1993)

0016-7061/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.geoderma.2010.08.001
 Downloaded from https://iranpaper.ir
https://www.tarjomano.com

D. Ma et al. / Geoderma 159 (2010) 262–269 263

because of practical issues in inserting probes in soils (such as TDR fragments. For one-dimensional horizontal absorption, the ESPM can
probes, tensiometers) or installing lysimeters (Cousin et al., 2003) in be written as (Richards equation)
such soils without altering the soil structure, especially when the  
content of rock fragments is great. In order to guarantee represen- ∂θ ∂ ∂h
= K ðhÞ ð1Þ
tative samples, the volume of soil sampled must be relatively large ∂t ∂x ∂x
(Buchter et al., 1984; Flint and Childs, 1984) which involves
considerable labour and extended times required for equilibrium θð0; xÞ = θi ð2Þ
when using pressure plate apparatus. Thus, although traditional
methods (Bruce and Klute, 1956; Green et al., 1986; Klute and θðt; 0Þ = θs ð3Þ
Dirksen, 1986) have proved reliable for determining the hydraulic
θðt; ∞Þ = θi ð4Þ
properties of homogeneous soils, they may lead to difficulties for
stony soils. For these reasons, many previous studies focused on the
where θ is the volumetric soil water content (cm3 cm−3), θi is the
determination of saturated hydraulic conductivities of stony soils
initial water content (cm3 cm−3), θs is the saturated water content
(Bouwer and Rice, 1984; Ravina and Magier, 1984; Brakensiek et al.,
(cm3 cm−3), h is the soil water potential (cm), K is the soil hydraulic
1986) and the relationships between the saturated hydraulic
conductivity (cm min−1), x is the horizontal distance from the inlet
conductivity of stony soils and their homogenous counterpart
(cm), and t is time (min).
(Bouwer and Rice, 1984; Brakensiek et al., 1986). Hydraulic properties
Soil water retention curves and unsaturated hydraulic conductiv-
of the fine earth are often assumed to be the same as those of soils
ities can be described using the equations proposed by Brooks and
without rock fragments. Nevertheless, it has been found (Mehuys et
Corey (1964)
al., 1975; Fies et al., 2002; Ma and Shao, 2008) that the presence of
rock fragments in soils can result in a pore structure of the fine earth θ−θr −n
that differs from that of soils without rock fragments. Until now, S= = ðαhÞ h≤1 = α
θs −θr ð5Þ
explicit unsaturated hydraulic conductivities of stony soils seemingly
S=1 h N 1= α
remained elusive for simulations of the infiltration into stony soils by
deterministic models (Cousin et al., 2003). −m l+1+2=n
Methods for determining unsaturated hydraulic properties in K ðSÞ = Ks ðαhÞ = Ks S ð6Þ
stony soils from horizontal absorption experiments may be a
where θr is the residual water content (cm3 cm−3), S is the effective
promising approach, by avoiding direct measurements of water
water saturation, α is an empirical parameter (cm−l) whose inverse is
content or potential. Shao and Horton (1998) and Wang et al.
often referred to as the air entry value or bubbling pressure, n is the
(2002) used horizontal absorption experiments for estimating
shape coefficient, Ks is the saturated hydraulic conductivity (cm min−1),
parameters of the van Genuchten (1980) and Brooks-Corey (1964)
l is the soil pore tortuosity factor, and m = n (l + 1) +2. The factor l can
hydraulic functions respectively. Although the applicable soil types
be any value, but 2 is applied to most soils (Brooks and Corey, 1964) and
are limited, their methods are simple, requiring only data for
is also adopted here. For notational convenience, let hd = −1/α for the
cumulative infiltration, infiltration rate and wetting front advance
remainder of this article which is positive and still denote the air entry
versus time during horizontal absorption. In that case, measurements
suction (cm).
of the required data show the same difficulty for stony as well as for
non-stony soils. Recently, Ma et al. (2009) further improved the
2.2. Method for estimating soil hydraulic properties
method of Wang et al. (2002) for application to a wider range of soil
textures. More experimental tests are however required, especially for
Combining the power function flux–concentration relationship
soils containing rock fragments.
(Kutilek, 1980) with the Boltzmann transformation method (Philip,
The first objective of this paper was to test whether the method
1960), Ma et al. (2009) deduced a simple approximate analytical
developed by Ma et al. (2009) could be used to measure the hydraulic
solution to the problem of horizontal absorption (Eqs. (1) to (4)) and
properties of soils containing rock fragments. The second objective
proposed a method for estimating hydraulic parameters of the
was to evaluate the influence of rock fragments on the soil hydraulic
Brooks-Corey model from horizontal absorption experiments and is
properties.
designated as unimproved method (UM) in this paper. In the UM,
Brooks-Corey model parameters can be obtained from the following
2. Theory
formulas
2.1. Model of water movement in stony soils a
n= ð7Þ
1−ðl + 1−βÞa
Ma et al. (2009) proposed and compared several models including
the non-equilibrium dual-porosity model (NDPM), the equilibrium sd
hd = ð8Þ
dual-porosity model (EDPM) and the equilibrium single-porosity 2Ks b½1−ðl + 1−βÞa
model (ESPM) to simulate water movement in stony soils. Their
results indicated that the dual-porosity model could accurately where β is the shape coefficient of water flux distribution on soil
simulate many phenomena especially non-equilibrium flows during profile and is assumed to be constant with no relation to soil texture.
water movement in stony soils. However, it is difficult to measure the Ma et al. (2009) recommended the β value of 1.145 when the UM was
hydraulic properties of fine earth and rock fragments separately to used. However, the β value was found to be close to 1 according to the
allow for the influence of rock fragments on soil pore structure. An measured water flux distributions for several soil types (White et al.,
alternative method is to consider the mixed fine earth and rock 1979; Boulier et al., 1984). Thus, UM with β = 1 and β = 1.145 were
fragments as a homogeneous effective medium. Water movement tested here using experimental data to acquire an appropriate value of
theory for homogeneous soils (the ESPM model) can then be used to β. a and b are parameters concerning soil water content distribution
simulate water flow in stony soils. Although the exact water which can be calculated by the two formulas as follows
distribution cannot be described, in that case, for non-equilibrium
flows, the single-porosity model could give good estimations of the θs −θr
a= −1 ð9Þ
cumulative infiltration and wetting front advance in soils with rock A + θi −θr
 Downloaded from https://iranpaper.ir
https://www.tarjomano.com

264 D. Ma et al. / Geoderma 159 (2010) 262–269

1
b = 1−Sia ð10Þ sand, 13.4% silt, and 0.2% clay, 0.1% organic matter) according to the
particle size classification of USDA. The particle density of the fine
b can be approximated to 1 because the initial water content (θi) or earth was 2.59 g cm−3. The saturated water content of the fine earth
initial water saturation (Si) required for this method is very low. A, s was 0.42 cm3 cm−3 at a bulk density of 1.5 g cm−3. The initial water
and d are the average increase of profile water content (cm), the contents of the rock fragments and the fine earth were 0.0084 cm3 cm−3
sorptivity (cm min−0.5) and the characteristic length of the wetting and 0.0173 cm3 cm−3, respectively. Rock fragments and fine earth were
zone (cm), respectively, which can be obtained by fitting observed packed uniformly into Plexiglas columns with five different gravimetric
data series with the following equations rock fragment contents Rm of 0, 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% which
corresponded to volumetric contents Rv of 0, 0.08, 0.17, 0.25 and 0.35.
I = A · xf ð11Þ The weight of fine earth was calculated to reach a bulk density of
1.5 g cm−3. In order to fill rock fragments and fine earth into the
1=2
xf = d · t ð12Þ columns as uniformly as possible, they were weighed separately for
each layer of 10 cm and mixed in one container before being packed into
1=2 columns. Horizontal absorption experiments were performed at zero
I=s·t ð13Þ
water head maintained by Marriott tubes at the water inlet. The
where I is the cumulative infiltration (cm) and xf is the wetting front cumulative infiltration volume and wetting front advance versus time
advance(cm). Obviously, if β is known in advance, all the hydraulic were measured during the experiments. At the completion of
parameters of the Brooks-Corey model can be easily estimated from infiltration experiments, the soil columns were saturated and arranged
Eqs. (7)–(13). vertically to determine the saturated hydraulic conductivity using a
To further improve the estimation of soil hydraulic parameters, constant water head of about 10 cm. The soil columns were weighed
based on the experimental results from 19 typical soils, Ma et al. before and after experiments to determine the total porosity. Each
(2009) developed an improved method (IM) using the experimental treatment was replicated three times, but for the relative standard
relationship between the real hydraulic parameters and those errors of cumulative infiltration or wetting front advance were less than
estimated by UM with β = 0. 4% for Rm b 40%, the treatment for Rm = 40% was replicated only twice.
The analytical method of Ma et al. (2009) was used to estimate the
a0 hydraulic parameters of soils with different rock fragment contents.
n= ð14Þ
1−ðl + 1Þa 0 HYDRUS-1D software (Šimůnek et al., 2005) was used to calculate the
cumulative infiltration and wetting front advance versus time for
sda 0 comparison with the observed values. To evaluate the influence of data
hd = ð15Þ
2Ks b″a″½1−ðl + 1Þa 0  series length on the stability of the estimated parameters, the
experimental data from Rm = 0 with final times of 50, 100, 150 and
where 173 min were used to further test the analytical method of Ma et al.
(2009). Finally, the average values of the estimated hydraulic
a′ = 0:77a−0:01 ð16Þ parameters of the stony soils for each treatment were used to evaluate
the influence of rock fragments on the soil hydraulic properties.
a″ = a−0:028 ð17Þ

1
b″ = 1−Sia″ ð18Þ 4. Results and discussion

The parameters a, A, s and d are same to those of UM. Similarly, b″
can also be approximated to 1 when a soil is initially very dry. But in
the improved method, β becomes a function of the parameter n and
the average water saturation of the wetting zone rather than a
constant with no relation to soil texture.
1 θi, θs, θr, Ks, A, s and d with Eqs. (7)–(13) or Eqs. (14)–(18). Average
β = ðl + 1 + 1 = nÞ− ð19Þ
a″
3. Materials and methods
One-dimensional water absorption experiments were performed
using horizontal soil columns to test the analytical model and
investigate how rock fragments affect soil hydraulic properties.
Experiments were conducted using a horizontal cylindrical column,
50 cm long with an inner diameter of 11 cm. Soils containing rock
fragments were sampled from the surface 0–20 cm soil layer at the
Liudaogou Basin experimental station located in the Shenmu District
of the Loess Plateau, Shaanxi Province in China (38°46′–38°51′ N,
110°21′–110°23′ E). The rock fragments were calcium concretions
from sediments containing calcium salts. Samples were air-dried and
rock fragments (N2 mm) were separated from the fine earth (b2 mm)
by sieving. The rock fragments were sieved again to obtain rocks of
10–20 mm equivalent diameter. The rocks were approximately
spherical in shape. The particle density, bulk density and saturated
water content of the rock fragments were 2.66 g cm−3, 1.94 g cm−3
and 0.27 cm3 cm−3, respectively. The fine earth was a Sand (86.3%
4.1. Test of the methods for stony soils
The UM with β = 1, the UM with β = 1.145 and the IM were all
evaluated (Ma et al., 2009). Using the observed data for cumulative
infiltration and wetting front advance versus time, the Brooks-Corey
hydraulic model parameters for all replications were estimated from
values of the estimated hydraulic parameters (hd and n) are shown in
Table 1 as well as the measured saturated hydraulic conductivities
(Ks). Parameters estimated by the three methods are not very
different from each other but have obvious differences in their
relative magnitudes. The UM with β = 1 predicted slightly greater n
values for all treatments than did the UM with β = 1.145 which
further predicted greater n values than did the IM. The air entry
suction (hd) values calculated by the UM with β = 1 are greater than
those predicted by the two other methods. Obviously, a lesser β value
in the UM will result in greater hd and n values. This will result in a
steeper soil water characteristic curve with greater air entry suction
when β is treated as constant.
As discussed earlier, β values are related to soil texture and initial
soil water saturation (Eqs. (9), (17) and (19)). Since the initial soil
water contents used in the testings are close to residual water
contents, β values mainly change with soil texture (with rock
fragment content). Using Eq. (19), β values were calculated and are
also shown in Table 1. The results in Table 1 indicate that most of the β
values are less than 1 that is conjectured to be the upper theoretical
limit (Philip, 1973) and that β values change with soil texture. Thus,
 Downloaded from https://iranpaper.ir
D. Ma et al. / Geoderma 159 (2010) 262–269
Table 1
Measured saturated conductivity and predicted Brooks-Corey hydraulic model parameters obtained by the horizontal absorption method for soils containing different rock fragment
contents.
Rv (cm3 cm−3) Ks (cm min−1) IM
β hd (cm)
0.00 0.0463 ± 0.0013 1.00 ± 0.03 80.1 ± 3.2
0.08 0.0520 ± 0.0001 0.96 ± 0.04 68.2 ± 2.7
0.17 0.0419 ± 0.0004 0.87 ± 0.02 84.5 ± 3.2
0.25 0.0372 ± 0.0017 0.87 ± 0.04 88.5 ± 11.2
0.35 0.0424 ± 0.0032 0.94 ± 0.04 61.6 ± 4.4
Eq. (19) may be more reasonable for describing the relationship
between β and soil texture than using a constant β.
To test the validation of the predicted soil hydraulic properties, the
HYDRUS-1D software was used, with estimated parameters, to
calculate cumulative infiltration and wetting front advance for
comparison with observed values. The calculated and observed
cumulative infiltration and wetting front advance are plotted in
Figs. 1 and 2, respectively, and compared with 1:1 lines for the three
methods. Root mean square errors (RMSE) were also calculated
(Table 2) for the three different methods between the observed values
for cumulative infiltration and wetting front advance and calculated
values. The plotted data all agree well with the 1:1 lines (Figs. 1 and 2)
except that the RMSE increases from the IM to the UM with β = 1 and
the UM with β = 1.145.
As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the IM slightly improves the estimations of
soil hydraulic parameters compared with the UM. The UM with
β = 1.145 seems to be a poorer predictor of soil hydraulic properties
as when β = 1. Although five different contents of rock fragments were
mixed with fine earth, only one type of fine earth was used. The
calculated values of β from Eq. (19) are very close to 1 for soils
containing no rock fragments and are mostly in the range from 0.8 to 1
for soils with rock fragments (Table 1). The fact that β are close to 1 for
all treatments, results in little differences of the calculated cumulative
infiltration or wetting front advance by the IM from the UM with β = 1.
However, for soils under natural conditions with a wider range of
textures, the β value may be far from 1. In such cases, the UM would not
be valid for estimating soil hydraulic parameters. Moreover, using a
uniform β value for typical soils covering large range of textures may not
be applicable for a particular soil. Therefore, it can be concluded that the
IM should have wider applicability than the other two methods and is
expected to be an accurate and time saving method for determining the
hydraulic properties of soils containing rock fragments.
Sufficient data series acquisition time is necessary for obtaining
confident hydraulic parameter values. Fig. 3 shows the observed and
calculated cumulative infiltration and wetting front advance curves
obtained from HYDRUS-1D while Table 3 presents soil hydraulic
parameters for Rv = 0 estimated by the IM using data with different
time length. The root mean square errors (RMSE) between the
observed and calculated cumulative infiltration and wetting front
advance are also shown in Table 3. A shorter time length of data leads
to a greater hd or n value but not a greater RMSE (Table 3). The
calculated results were significantly overestimated when data for
times less than 50 min were used (Fig. 3) while the calculated
cumulative infiltration and wetting front advance together are in good
accordance with the observed values when the data time length is
greater than 100 min. Thus, the IM is reliable as long as experimental
data with sufficient length of time is available.
4.2. Influence of rock fragments on the soil water characteristic curve
Air entry suction (hd) and shape coefficient (n) are the two most
important parameters of the Brooks-Corey hydraulic model. Fig. 4a
and b show the mean and standard errors of air entry suction (hd) and
https://www.tarjomano.com
265
UM
β=1 β = 1.145
n hd (cm) n hd (cm) n
0.380 ± 0.038 88.5 ± 3.1 0.474 ± 0.041 82.8 ± 2.6 0.443 ± 0.036
0.437 ± 0.057 74.4 ± 2.1 0.534 ± 0.059 69.1 ± 1.5 0.495 ± 0.051
0.608 ± 0.053 88.5 ± 2.2 0.704 ± 0.049 80.3 ± 1.5 0.639 ± 0.041
0.640 ± 0.123 91.5 ± 8.8 0.728 ± 0.111 82.6 ± 6.8 0.656 ± 0.089
0.475 ± 0.071 66.9 ± 3.7 0.556 ± 0.074 61.9 ± 2.7 0.513 ± 0.063
shape coefficient (n), predicted by the IM, as a function of the
volumetric rock fragment content. The air entry suctions of stony soils
exhibit no single increasing or decreasing relationship but show two
significant turning points with increasing rock fragment content.
Values of hd fall to a local minimum when the rock fragment content
by volume increases from 0 to about 0.08 and then rise gradually to a
maximum at a rock fragment content by volume of about 0.25. The
values of hd then decrease again with rock fragment content. In
contrast, the shape coefficient n increases to a maximum when the
rock fragment content is about 0.25 and then decreases.
Both air entry suction and shape coefficient depend on soil particle
size distribution and pore structure (total porosity and pore size
distribution). If rock fragments were non-porous and did not change
the pore structure of the fine earth fraction, hd and n would be
constant and only a linear offset for the soil water characteristic curve
would occur irrespective of rock fragment content of the soil. Fig. 4a
and b show that this is obviously not the case. The results indicate that
both hd and n vary with increased rock fragment content. Some
studies (Mehuys et al., 1975; Brakensiek and Rawls, 1994) have
reported that the main effects of rock fragments on the fine earth
water characteristic curve occurred in the low and high suction
regions. Air entry suction is associated with the high suction region
while the shape coefficient of the soil water characteristic curve can
be influenced by the whole region of suction. Several reasons may
explain the variations of hd and n with rock fragment content shown
in Fig. 4. First, rock fragments (N2 mm) will add new particle size
grades and the ratio of them to finer solid particles (b2 mm) will
increase with rock fragment content. Second, rock fragments may
create some new voids especially big pores (Ravina and Magier, 1984)
at the rock fragment–fine earth interfaces (Fies et al., 2002; Tokunaga
et al., 2003). Third, rock fragments may influence the ability of soils to
resist local compaction (Ravina and Magier, 1984), hence resulting in
more heterogeneity of bulk density and pore distribution within soils.
As a result, a greater total porosity of stony soil was found in the
experiments when Rv = 0.08 cm3 cm−3 compared to Rv = 0.0 cm3 cm−3
(Fig. 4c). Finally, some rock fragments contain considerable numbers
of pores (Hanson and Blevins, 1979; Jones and Graham, 1993;
Brouwer and Anderson, 2000; Cousin et al., 2003) rather than being
non-porous rocks (Unger, 1971; Mehuys et al., 1975; Peck and
Watson, 1979; Khaleel and Relyea, 1997). In these experiments, the
average porosity of rock fragments can reach up to 0.27 cm3 cm−3,
which represents 64% of fine earth porosity (0.42 cm3 cm−3). The
pores within rock fragments are mainly small sized and then in the
low water potential range, their porosity may make them the main
contributor to water storage instead of fine earth pores within this
suction range (Sharma et al., 1993; Tokunaga et al., 2003). With
increasing rock fragments, the soil–rock fragment mixture may
undergo an intrinsic change from a soil containing rock fragments to
a mixture with fine earth embedded into pore spaces among rock
fragments (Ma and Shao, 2008). The influence of rock fragments on
soil hydraulic properties is therefore of great complexity and the
behavior of the soil water characteristic curve could not be attributed
to only one of the factors discussed above.
 Downloaded from https://iranpaper.ir
https://www.tarjomano.com

266 D. Ma et al. / Geoderma 159 (2010) 262–269

Fig. 1. Observed cumulative infiltration versus calculated cumulative infiltration from Fig. 2. Observed wetting front advance versus calculated wetting front advance from
HYDRUS-1D with the estimated parameters by the (a) IM, (b) UM with β = 1, and HYDRUS-1D with the estimated parameters by the (a) IM, (b) UM with β = 1, and
(c) UM with β = 1.145. (c) UM with β = 1.145.
 Downloaded from https://iranpaper.ir
https://www.tarjomano.com

D. Ma et al. / Geoderma 159 (2010) 262–269 267

Table 2 Table 3
Root mean square error (RMSE) between the observed values for cumulative Estimated soil hydraulic parameters for Rv = 0 by the IM using data for different series
infiltration and wetting front advance, and calculated values from HYDRUS-1D for all length, and the root mean square error (RMSE) between the observed and calculated
treatments using three different methods. values of cumulative infiltration and wetting front advance from HYDRUS-1D.

Method Cumulative infiltration (cm) Wetting front (cm) Time hd n RMSE (cm)
(min) (cm)
IM 0.17 0.51 Cumulative infiltration Wetting front
UM (β = 1) 0.31 0.65
50 90.1 0.373 0.22 1.01
UM (β = 1.145) 0.40 1.15
100 81.9 0.323 0.16 0.33
150 79.9 0.320 0.18 0.46
173 79.1 0.319 0.19 0.48

4.3. Influence of rock fragments on soil hydraulic conductivity

Unsaturated soil hydraulic conductivity usually can be expressed
as a product of saturated hydraulic conductivity and a dimensionless
function of water saturation with values between 0 and 1. Due to the
difficulty of determining the unsaturated hydraulic conductivities of
soils containing rock fragments, the dimensionless function or relative
hydraulic conductivity is usually assumed to be that of fine earth. To
simplify the calculation of unsaturated hydraulic conductivities of
stony soils, attempts have been made to relate the saturated hydraulic
conductivity of the soil containing rock fragments to that of fine earth
(Peck and Watson, 1979; Bouwer and Rice, 1984; Ravina and Magier,
1984). Four main methods have been proposed.
Using heat transfer theory as a basis, Peck and Watson (1979)
derived a formula for a homogeneous medium containing non-porous
spherical inclusions to calculate the hydraulic conductivity of a stony
soil from the hydraulic conductivity of the fine earth and the
volumetric rock fragment content
2ð1−Rv Þ
Ks;T = K ð20Þ
ð2 + Rv Þ s;fe

where Ks,T and Ks,fe are the hydraulic conductivities (cm min−1), and
the subscripts s, T and fe denote saturated soil, total soil (i.e. stony
soil) and fine earth, respectively.
For easier application, Eq. (20) was simplified to a function of the
rock fragment content by weight according to experiential relations
(Brakensiek et al., 1986)

Ks;T = ð1−Rm ÞKs;fe ð21Þ

Bouwer and Rice (1984) proposed the following equation that

takes porosity of rock fragments into consideration

θs;T
Ks;T = K ð22Þ
θs;fe s;fe

where θs,T and θs,fe are the porosities or saturated water contents
(cm3 cm−3) and the subscripts mean the same to the above.
Assuming that rock fragments were non-porous and did not exert
an influence on the pore structure of the fine earth, Ravina and Magier
(1984) considered that the relative hydraulic conductivity of a stony
soil to fine earth could be approximated to the volumetric percentage
of bulk fine earth.

Ks;T = ð1−Rv ÞKs;fe ð23Þ

Fig. 5 shows the observed saturated hydraulic conductivities of

Fig. 3. Observed and calculated (a) cumulative infiltration curves and (b) wetting front
advance curves from HYDRUS-1D with the estimated parameters by the IM using data
with different series length.
stony soils (Ks,T) as a function of rock fragment content (Rv), as well as
predicted values by Eqs. (20), (21), (22) and (23) for comparison
between models. Fig. 5 indicates that the observed saturated
hydraulic conductivities exhibit no consistent increase or decrease
with increased rock fragment content. At 95% confidence level,
statistical analysis by Mathcad software (Mathsoft, 2001) shows an
overall decrease of the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the stony
soils with increasing stone content, but a greater saturated hydraulic
conductivity compared to the fine earth is observed when the rock
fragment content is about 0.08. With further increases in rock
fragment content, the saturated hydraulic conductivity declines and
then increases again. Zhu and Shao (2006), using different kinds of
fine soil and stones from those used in this study, also observed this
phenomena for soils containing 0.08 volumetric rock fragments in
rain runoff experiments. In Fig. 4c, the soils with Rv = 0.08 cm3 cm−3
show the maximum porosity. Clearly, factors enhancing water flow in
stony soils, such as the generation of new voids and the change of the
fine earth pore structure exert a greater influence on soil hydraulic
 Downloaded from https://iranpaper.ir
268 D. Ma et al. / Geoderma 159 (2010) 262–269
Fig. 4. Influence of rock fragment content (Rv) on (a) the air entry suction (hd), (b) the
shape coefficient (n) of the soil water characteristic curve predicted by the IM, and
(c) the measured total porosities of stony soils. Error bars are standard errors.
https://www.tarjomano.com
Fig. 5. Influence of rock fragment content (Rv) on the saturated hydraulic conductivity
(Ks,T), and comparisons among models relating the saturated hydraulic conductivity
(Ks,T) of a stony soil to that of fine earth (Ks,fe). Error bars are standard errors of
measured values.
conductivity than factors reducing flow, such as the reduction of cross
sectional area for water flow and the possible increase of tortuosity
induced by rock fragments. The alternating dominance of these
opposite factors can be responsible for the fluctuation of the measured
saturated hydraulic conductivities with the rock fragment content.
As shown in Fig. 5, values estimated from Eq. (22) are the greatest
and the closest to the observed saturated hydraulic conductivities,
while Eqs. (20), (21) and (23) give lower estimated values than
observed. Brakensiek and Rawls (1994) also found that Eq. (22) gave
the best estimations of saturated hydraulic conductivities of stony
soils. In both Eqs. (22) and (23), the cross sectional area available for
water flow is assumed to be directly proportional to the saturated
hydraulic conductivity. However, the rock fragments examined by
Ravina and Magier (1984) have very low porosity of 0.04 cm3 cm−3
contrasted to 0.27 cm3 cm−3 in this paper and thus the rock porosity
may explain the discrepancy between the estimations of Eqs. (23) and
(22). Eq. (20) was derived for non-porous spherical inclusions (Peck
and Watson, 1979) but a perfect contact at the rock fragment–fine
earth interface was assumed and the reorganization of the fine earth
pore structure was not considered. The change of fine earth pore
structure and the non-perfect contact between rock fragments and
fine earth are responsible for the discrepancy between Eqs. (20)
and (23).
As well as saturated hydraulic conductivity, air entry suction (hd)
and the exponent m are main parameters determining the unsatu-
rated hydraulic conductivity curve (Eq. (6)). Mehuys et al. (1975)
reported that the influence of rock fragments on unsaturated
hydraulic conductivity was most important in the low and high
suction regions. Given that a linear relationship exists between the
parameters m and n, rock fragment content should have the same
effect on both of them.
This paper considered only disturbed soils. The field situation
would be more complex than discussed here. Apart from their direct
influence on soil porosity and pore structure, rock fragments may also
affect soil structure development processes. For example, rock
fragments can serve as a skeleton to resist compaction and provide
many opportunities for soil burrowing animals, which may promote
soil aggregate development (Ma and Shao, 2008). Rock fragments
could force the plant roots to make morphological adaptations
(Zwieniecki and Newton, 1995) which may also be an important
contributor to soil aggregation. Therefore, further field experiments
are required to determine the influence of rock fragments on soil
 Downloaded from https://iranpaper.ir
D. Ma et al. / Geoderma 159 (2010) 262–269
hydraulic properties and to depict more clearly the processes affecting
water movement in soils containing rock fragments.
5. Conclusions
Few simple and valid methods are available to measure the
unsaturated hydraulic properties of soils containing rock fragments.
Consequently, it is almost impossible to accurately simulate water or
solute transport in these kinds of soils using deterministic models
which require explicit hydraulic functions. In this study, the
horizontal absorption method proposed by Ma et al. (2009) was
tested for determining the hydraulic properties of soils containing
rock fragments. Using the estimated parameters, the effects of rock
fragments on soil hydraulic properties were also evaluated. The
results demonstrate that the Improved Method (IM) can give good
estimations of the hydraulic parameters of stony soils as shown with
the cumulative infiltration and wetting front advance calculated using
the HYDRUS-1D software. Calculated cumulative infiltration and
wetting front advance agreed favorably with observed values for
soils with rock fragment contents ranging from 0 to 0.35 cm3 cm−3.
For the soil used, an Unimproved Method (UM) with β = 1 or
β = 1.145 predicted the Brooks-Corey model parameters close to
those calculated using the IM. All of the important hydraulic
parameters of stony soils such as air entry suction, saturated hydraulic
conductivity and curve shape coefficients vary with rock fragment
content. The soil containing about 0.08 rock fragments displayed
greater saturated hydraulic conductivity than the non-stony soil. The
observed relationship between saturated hydraulic conductivity and
rock fragment content was not well fitted by any of the four methods
assessed. These findings suggest that rock fragments should not be
treated as non-porous media in all situations. The hydraulic properties
of the fine earth could not be approximated to those of soils without
rock fragments especially when the fine earth contains great amounts
of clay favorable to soil aggregation. Reduction of porosity with
increased rock fragment content is one of the most important factors
affecting the hydraulic properties of stony soils but other factors may
also take effects. For example, existence of rock fragments in field soils
may affect the actions of soil animals and microorganisms and the
growth of plant roots, all of them affecting the development of soil
pore structure. Although further experimental tests are required on
the applicability of the horizontal absorption method to stony soils
over a wider range of textures, it provides a good tool for studying
unsaturated hydraulic properties and thus water and solute move-
ments in soils containing rock fragments.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation
of China (No. 50909090), National Basic Research Program of China
(No. 2005CB121103), the Knowledge Innovation Program of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. kzcx2-yw-406) and the State Key
Laboratory Foundation of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the
Loess Plateau (No. 10501-238). We thank two anonymous reviewers
and Claude Doussan in INRA for their valuable suggestions and efforts
made in improving the quality of the manuscript.
References
Boulier, J.F., Touma, J., Vauclin, M., 1984. Flux-concentration relation-based solution of
constant-flux infiltration equation: I. Infiltration into nonuniform initial moisture
profiles. Soil Science Society of America Journal 48, 245–251.
Bouwer, H., Rice, R.C., 1984. Hydraulic properties of stony vadose zones. Ground Water
22, 696–705.
Brakensiek, D.L., Rawls, W.J., 1994. Soil containing rock fragments: effects on
infiltration. Catena 23, 99–110.
Brakensiek, D.L., Rawls, W.J., Stephenson, G.R., 1986. Determining the saturated
hydraulic conductivity of a soil containing rock fragments. Soil Science Society of
America Journal 50, 834–835.
https://www.tarjomano.com
269
Brooks, R.H., Corey, A.T., 1964. Hydraulic properties of porous media. Hydrological
Paper 3. Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, pp. 22–27.
Brouwer, J., Anderson, H., 2000. Water holding capacity of ironstone gravel in a typic
plinthoxeralf in southeast Australia. Soil Science Society of America Journal 64,
1603–1608.
Bruce, R.R., Klute, A., 1956. The measurement of soil moisture diffusivity. Soil Science
Society of America Journal 20, 458–462.
Buchter, B., Leuenberger, J., Wierenga, P.J., Richard, F., 1984. Preparation of large core
samples from stony soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal 48, 1460–1462.
Childs, S.W., Flint, A.L., 1990. Physical properties of forest soils containing rock
fragments. In: Gessel, S.P., Weetman, G.F., Powers, R.F. (Eds.), Sustained
Productivity of Forest Soil. University of British Colombia, Vancouver.
Coile, T.S., 1953. Moisture content of small stone in soil. Soil Science 75, 203–207.
Cousin, I., Nicoullaud, B., Coutadeur, C., 2003. Influence of rock fragments on the water
retention and water percolation in a calcareous soil. Catena 53, 97–114.
Fies, J.C., Louvigny, N.D., Chanzy, A., 2002. The role of stones in soil water retention.
European Journal of Soil Science 53, 95–104.
Fleming, R.L., Black, T.A., Eldridge, N.R., 1993. Water content, bulk density, and coarse
fragment content measurement in forest soils. Soil Science Society of America
Journal 57, 261–270.
Flint, A.L., Childs, S., 1984. Development and calibration of an irregular hole bulk density
sampler. Soil Science Society of America Journal 48, 374–378.
Green, R.E., Ahuja, L.R., Chong, S.K., 1986. Hydraulic conductivity, diffusivity, and
sorptivity of unsaturated soils: field methods, In: Klute, A. (Ed.), Methods of soil
analysis, 2nd ed. : Part 1. Agronomy Monographs, vol. 9. American Society of
Agronomy and Soil Science Society of America, Madision, WI, pp. 771–798.
Hanson, C.T., Blevins, R.L., 1979. Soil water in coarse fragments. Soil Science Society of
America Journal 43, 819–820.
Jones, D.P., Graham, R.C., 1993. Water-holding characteristics of weathered granitic
rock in chaparral and forest ecosystems. Soil Science Society of America Journal 57,
256–261.
Khaleel, R., Relyea, J., 1997. Correcting laboratory-measured moisture retention data for
gravels. Water Resources Research 33, 1875–1878.
Klute, A., Dirksen, C., 1986. Hydraulic conductivity and diffusivity: laboratory methods,
In: Klute, A. (Ed.), Methods of soil analysis, 2nd ed. : Part 1. Agronomy Monographs,
vol. 9. American Society of Agronomy and Soil Science Society of America,
Madision, WI, pp. 687–734.
Koshi, P.T., 1966. Soil-moisture measurement by the neutron method in rocky wildland
soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal 30, 282–284.
Kutilek, M., 1980. Constant-rainfall infiltration. Journal of Hydrology 45, 289–303.
Ma, D.H., Shao, M.A., 2008. Simulating infiltration into stony soils with a dual-porosity
model. European Journal of Soil Science 59, 950–959.
Ma, D.H., Wang, Q.J., Shao, M.A., 2009. Analytical method for estimating soil hydraulic
parameters from horizontal absorption. Soil Science Society of America Journal 73,
727–736.
MathSoft, 2001. Mathcad & Reference manual. MathSoft Inc, Cambridge, MA.
Mehuys, G.R., Stolzy, L.H., Letey, J., Weeks, L.V., 1975. Effect of stones on the hydraulic
conductivity of relatively dry desert soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal
39, 37–42.
Peck, A.J., Watson, J.D., 1979. Hydraulic conductivity and flow in non-uniform soil.
Workshop on Soil Physics and Field Heterogeneity. CSIRO Division of Environ-
mental Mechanics, Canberra, Australia.
Philip, J.R., 1960. General method of exact solutions of the concentration-dependent
diffusion equation. Australian Journal of Physics 13, 1–12.
Philip, J.R., 1973. On solving the unsaturated flow equation: I. The flux–concentration
relation. Soil Science 117, 1–13.
Poesen, J., Lavee, H., 1994. Rock fragments in top soils: significance and processes.
Catena 23, 1–28.
Ravina, I., Magier, J., 1984. Hydraulic conductivity and water retention of clay soils
containing coarse fragments. Soil Science Society of America Journal 48, 736–740.
Reinhart, K.G., 1961. The problem of stones in soil-moisture measurement. Soil Science
Society of America Journal 25, 268–270.
Shao, M.A., Horton, R., 1998. Integral method for estimating soil hydraulic properties.
Soil Science Society of America Journal 62, 585–592.
Sharma, P.P., Carter, F.S., Halvorson, G.A., 1993. Water retention by soils containing coal.
Soil Science Society of America Journal 57, 311–316.
Šimůnek, J., van Genuchten, M.T., Šejna, M., 2005. The HYDRUS-1D Software Package for
Simulating the Movement of Water, Heat, and Multiple Solutes in Variably
Saturated Media. Version 3.0, HYDRUS Software Series 1. Department of
Environmental Sciences, University of California, Riverside, California, USA.
Tokunaga, T.K., Olson, K.R., Wan, J., 2003. Moisture characteristics of Hanford gravels: bulk,
grain-surface, and intragranular components. Vadose Zone Journal 2, 322–329.
Unger, P.W., 1971. Soil profile gravel layers: I. Effect on water storage, distribution, and
evaporation. Soil Science Society of America Journal 35, 631–634.
Van Genuchten, M.Th., 1980. A closed form equation for predicting the hydraulic
conductivity of unsaturated soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal 44, 892–898.
Wang, Q.J., Horton, R., Shao, M.A., 2002. Horizontal infiltration method for determining
Brooks–Corey model parameters. Soil Science Society of America Journal 66,
1733–1739.
White, I., Smiles, D.E., Perroux, K.M., 1979. Absorption of water by soil: the constant flux
boundary condition. Soil Science Society of America Journal 43, 659–664.
Zhu, Y.J., Shao, M.A., 2006. Processes of rainfall infiltration and sediment yield in soils.
Transactions of the CSAE 22 (2), 64–67 (In Chinese).
Zwieniecki, M.A., Newton, M., 1995. Roots growing in rock fissures — their
morphological adaptation. Plant and Soil 172, 181–187.