Spatial Distribution of Surface Soil Moisture in a Small Forested Catchment

Shoji Noguchi; Yoshio Tsuboyama; Roy C Sidle; Tayoko Kubota

doi:10.4236/jwarp.2014.613111

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Spatial Distribution of Surface Soil Moisture in a Small Forested Catchment

Journal article

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Spatial Distribution of Surface Soil Moisture in a Small Forested Catchment

Shoji Noguchi, Yoshio Tsuboyama, Roy C Sidle and Tayoko Kubota

Journal of Water Resource and Protection, Vol.7(3), pp.1220-1227

2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4236/jwarp.2014.613111

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Abstract

Environmental Engineering

ADR sensor

soil water content

spatial heterogeneity

temperate forest

topographic index

Predicting the spatial distribution of soil moisture is an important hydrological question. We measured the spatial distribution of surface soil moisture (upper 6 cm) using an Amplitude Domain Reflectometry sensor at the plot scale (2 × 2 m) and small catchment scale (0.84 ha) in a temperate forest. The spatial variation of soil water content was higher during dry conditions than that during wet conditions. Results indicated 3.1 samples at the plot scale were sufficient to estimate mean soil water content when the precision was 0.1. Soil water content increased with increasing topographic index (TI) and soil-topographic index (STI) at the small catchment scale. The correlation between soil water content and TI was higher than that between soil water content and STI. This suggests that topography is more important for estimating surface soil moisture than soil depth as formation of surface soil moisture occurs at ≤6 cm.

Details

Title: Spatial Distribution of Surface Soil Moisture in a Small Forested Catchment
Authors: Shoji Noguchi (Author) - Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Japan
Yoshio Tsuboyama (Author) - Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Japan
Roy C Sidle (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
Tayoko Kubota (Author) - Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Japan
Publication details: Journal of Water Resource and Protection, Vol.7(3), pp.1220-1227
Publisher: Scientific Research Publishing
Date published: 2014
DOI: 10.4236/jwarp.2014.613111
ISSN: 1945-3094
Copyright note: Copyright © 2014 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Sustainability Research Cluster
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99449324102621
Output Type: Journal article

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