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Oosterveld and Chang (1980), soil-moisture retention from texture and depth.

Source

Oosterveld, M., & Chang, C. (1980). Empirical relations between laboratory determinations of soil texture and moisture retention. Canadian Agricultural Engineering, 22, 149-151.

Scope

Territory: Southern Alberta, Canada

Dataset: 1,137 pressure-plate analyses on 298 soil samples from the Lethbridge Research Station laboratory; the field-capacity tension regression used 134 samples.

Functions

calc_ptf_oosterveld1980_field_capacity_tension

Estimate field-capacity tension from clay content.

Status: implemented

Prediction target: Tension at which pressure-plate moisture content equals field capacity determined by the cylinder method.

Models: \(h(\theta)\) — Field-capacity tension point estimate

Inputs

Name Type Unit Domain Description
clay number % mass 2 <= value <= 72 Clay content in percent by weight; the field-capacity tension experiment covered 2% to 72% clay.

Outputs

Name Unit Domain Description
field_capacity_tension kPa value > 0 Predicted tension corresponding to cylinder-method field capacity.

Note

Equation 1 reports r = 0.67 and n = 134.

calc_ptf_oosterveld1980_retention

Estimate gravimetric soil-moisture content from texture, depth, and tension.

Status: implemented

Prediction target: Gravimetric soil-moisture content at a specified tension.

Models: \(h(\theta)\) — Empirical power-law moisture-retention relation

Inputs

Name Type Unit Domain Description
clay number % mass Clay content in percent by weight.
sand number % mass Sand content in percent by weight.
mean_depth number cm 8 <= value <= 180 Mean depth of the soil sample.
tension number kPa 10 <= value <= 1500 Soil-moisture tension.

Outputs

Name Unit Domain Description
moisture_content % mass Predicted soil-moisture content in percent by weight.

Note

Equation 2 reports r = 0.96 and n = 1,137.

Warning

The paper reports slight inaccuracy at very high clay content and high tension.

calc_ptf_oosterveld1980_field_capacity

Estimate gravimetric soil-moisture content at field capacity.

Status: implemented

Prediction target: Gravimetric soil-moisture content at field capacity.

Models: \(h(\theta)\) — Field-capacity point estimate derived from Equations 1 and 2

Inputs

Name Type Unit Domain Description
clay number % mass 2 <= value <= 72 Clay content in percent by weight; the field-capacity tension experiment covered 2% to 72% clay.
sand number % mass Sand content in percent by weight.
mean_depth number cm 8 <= value <= 180 Mean depth of the soil sample.

Outputs

Name Unit Domain Description
field_capacity_moisture % mass Predicted soil-moisture content at field capacity in percent by weight.

Note

Equation 3 is obtained by substituting the Equation 1 field-capacity tension into Equation 2.

calc_ptf_oosterveld1980_wilting_point

Estimate gravimetric soil-moisture content at the 1500 kPa wilting point.

Status: implemented

Prediction target: Gravimetric soil-moisture content at 1500 kPa.

Models: \(h(\theta)\) — Wilting-point estimate at 1500 kPa

Inputs

Name Type Unit Domain Description
clay number % mass Clay content in percent by weight.
sand number % mass Sand content in percent by weight.
mean_depth number cm 8 <= value <= 180 Mean depth of the soil sample.

Outputs

Name Unit Domain Description
wilting_point_moisture % mass Predicted soil-moisture content at 1500 kPa in percent by weight.

Note

Equation 4 reports r = 0.96 and n = 298.

Note

The paper takes moisture content at 1500 kPa as the wilting point.

calc_ptf_oosterveld1980_available_water

Estimate available gravimetric soil moisture between field capacity and wilting point.

Status: implemented

Prediction target: Difference between gravimetric moisture content at field capacity and at the 1500 kPa wilting point.

Models: \(h(\theta)\) — Available-moisture point estimate from Equations 3 and 4

Inputs

Name Type Unit Domain Description
clay number % mass 2 <= value <= 72 Clay content in percent by weight; the field-capacity tension experiment covered 2% to 72% clay.
sand number % mass Sand content in percent by weight.
mean_depth number cm 8 <= value <= 180 Mean depth of the soil sample.

Outputs

Name Unit Domain Description
available_moisture % mass Predicted field-capacity moisture minus predicted wilting-point moisture, in percentage points by weight.

Note

The paper defines available soil water by subtracting Equation 4 from Equation 3.