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Understanding the hydrology is fundamental for understanding peatland habitats, and this chapter considers both the quantitative and qualitative (chemical) aspects of water in peatlands. It describes how depth to the water table (DWT) governs vegetational physiognomy, plant occurrence, and growth. Hydraulic conductivity is an important concept affecting the water flow in the peat; and how the conductivity is related to degree of decomposition (humification) of the peat, is discussed. Variation in hydraulic conductivity is a basis for the separation in bogs between an upper, aerated ‘active layer’ (acrotelm) and the lower, constantly anoxic ‘inactive layer’ (catotelm). The water balance of a peatland is an accounting of the inputs, outputs and storage of water. The variation in water chemistry (with a focus on pH, calcium content, and electric conductivity) in peatlands is discussed, and methods for measurement introduced.

This chapter introduces the concepts behind the flow of water in soil and the forces that retard water flow. Steady-state water flow in saturated soils is presented and saturated hydraulic conductivity is described. Poiseuille’s law is derived and the theory behind water transport in soil is developed. The theoretical basis of the capillary bundle concept and porosity is described. Equations are presented to derive saturated hydraulic conductivity from soil texture data. The unsaturated hydraulic conductivity is derived from knowledge of the soil water retention curve and numerical code is presented to allow the reader to experiment with the features, and limitations, of the different parametric models available.

Among research publications in soil science, few have had a greater impact than those by Nielsen et al. (1973) or Biggar and Nielsen (1976). According to Science Citation Index, the former paper, entitled “Spatial variability of field-measured soilwater properties,” has been cited by scientific peers over 390 times. The 1976 paper, entitled “Spatial variability of the leaching characteristics of a field soil,” has been cited over 232 times. Experimental work presented in both papers represents the first-ever attempt at a large field-scale study of steady-state water and solute transport (Wagenet, 1986). Among the seminal findings of these two papers were as follows: (1) extensive spatial variability existed in soil hydraulic and solute transport properties within a relatively homogeneous field (important in the work of Pilgrim et al., 1982; Addiscott and Wagenet, 1985; Feddes et al., 1988; van dcr Molen and van Ommen, 1988); (2) soil water content, bulk density, and soil particle size exhibited normal frequency distributions, while distributions for hydraulic conductivity, hydraulic diffusivity, pore water velocity, and hydrodynamic dispersion were lognormal (work extended by van der Pol et al.. 1977; Rao et al., 1979); (3) frequency distributions were far superior to field-average parameter values (especially for lognormally distributed properties) in describing field transport behavior (demonstrated by Rao et al., 1979; Trangmar et al., 1985); (4) a simple unit hydraulic gradient method was shown to estimate saturated hydraulic conductivity accurately (results extended by Libardi et al., 1980; van Genuchten and Leij, 1992); (5) good correspondence was found between solute velocity and pore water velocity (key assumption in Jury and Fluhler, 1992); (6) and theoretical predictions of a linear relation between hydrodynamic dispersion and pore water velocity were shown to be obeyed at the field scale (result used widely by solute transport modelers, as discussed in Nielsen et al., 1986). The seminal works by Nielsen et al. (1973) and Biggar and Nielsen (1976) produced several new directions in soil science and vadose zone hydrology research. The most interesting was a series of papers that rejected the theoretical basis and practicality of using deterministic equations, and instead introduced stochastic approaches to describe field-scale water and solute fluxes.

Water is of central importance in the transport of solutes, whether by diffusion or mass flow, and whether in soils or plants (Lösch 1995). It is also extremely important for the biota that live in the soil (Parr et al. 1981). Water is an unusual component of the environment, because its structure suggests it should be a gas at normal temperatures rather than a liquid, and it is the only common compound in the biosphere that occurs to a significant extent in the vapour, liquid and solid phases. We begin this chapter with a very brief statement of the thermodynamic approach to the study of water, which defines the water potential. Without an understanding of chemical potentials, it is difficult to deal with the relationships of ions and water in the soil and the plant. Therefore, in this chapter we give an introduction to this subject with special reference to water, which we then take further in chapters 4 and 5. A clear exposition of this is given in Nobel (1991). The concept of chemical potential is fundamental. It is a measure of the energy state of a particular compound in a particular system, and hence of the ability of a unit amount of the compound to perform work and thereby cause change. In particular, the difference in potential at different points in a system gives a measure of the tendency of the component to move from the region with the high potential to the region with the low potential. A component of a system can have various forms of potential energy in this sense, all of which contribute to the total chemical potential. Here, we exclude chemical reaction energy and kinetic energy. The main forms of energy that contribute to the chemical potential of a specified compound or material are due to its concentration (which may release energy on dilution), to its compression (which may perform work on expansion), to its position in an electrical field (which may release energy if the component is electrically charged and moves within the field), and to its position in the gravitational field (which may release energy as the component moves downwards).

The fate and transport of a variety of chemicals migrating from industrial and municipal waste disposal sites, or applied to agricultural lands, is increasingly becoming a concern. Once released into the subsurface, these chemicals arc subject to a large number of simultaneous physical, chemical, and biological processes, including sorption-desorption, volatilization, and degradation. Depending upon the type of organic chemical involved, transport may also be subject to multiphase flow that involves partitioning of the chemical between different fluid phases. Many models of varying degree of complexity and dimensionality have been developed during the past several decades to quantify the basic physicochemical processes affecting transport in the unsaturated zone. Models for variably saturated water flow, solute transport, aqueous chemistry, and cation exchange were initially developed mostly independently of each other, and only recently has there been a significant effort to couple the different processes involved. Also, most solute transport models in the past considered only one solute. For example, the processes of adsorption-desorption and cation exchange were often accounted for by using relatively simple linear or nonlinear Freundlich isotherms such that all reactions between the solid and liquid phases were forced to be lumped into a single distribution coefficient, and possibly a nonlinear exponent. Other processes such as precipitation-dissolution, biodegradation, volatilization, or radioactive decay were generally simulated by means of simple first- and/or zero-order rate processes. These simplifying approaches were needed to keep the mathematics relatively simple in view of the limitations of previously available computers. The problem of coupling models for water flow and solute transport with multicomponent chemical equilibrium and nonequilibrium models is now increasingly being addressed, facilitated by the introduction of more powerful computers, development of more advanced numerical techniques, and improved understanding of the underlying transport processes. One major frustrating issue facing soil scientists and hydrologists in dealing with the unsaturated zone, both in terms of modeling and experimentation, is the overwhelming heterogeneity of the subsurface environment.

For all spatial scales, from pore through local and field, to a watershed, interaction of the land surface with the atmosphere will be one of the crucial topics in hydrology and environmental sciences over the forthcoming years. The recent lack of water in many parts of the world shows that there is an urgent need to assess our knowledge on the soil moisture dynamics. The difficulty of parameterization of soil hydrological processes lies not only in the nonlinearity of the unsaturated flow equation but also in the mismatch between the scales of measurements and the scale of model predictions. Most standard measurements of soil physical parameters provide information only at the local scale and highlight the underlying variability in soil hydrological characteristics. The efficiency of soil characteristic parameterization for the field scale depends on the clear definition of the functional relationships and parameters to be measured, and on the development of possible methods for the determination of soil characteristics with a realistic use time and effort. The soil’s hydraulic properties that affect the flow behavior can be expressed by a soil water retention curve that describes the relation between volumetric water content, θ(L³L³), and soil water pressure, h(L), plus the relation between volumetric water content and hydraulic conductivity, K(L/T). In the next section, the determination of soil hydraulic parameters is first discussed for local and field scale. Then, we show how the pore-scale processes can be linked to soil hydraulic properties. These properties are then used in some of the modern methods that use integral and superposition solutions of Richards’ equation for infiltration and water flow problems for both stable and preferential types of flows. Finally, some practical aspects for watersheds are discussed to highlight the difficulties encountered when large-scale predictions are needed.

The hydrologic cycle has received considerable attention in recent years with particular interest in the dynamics of land–atmosphere exchanges as it relates to global climate change and the need for more accurate numbers in global circulation models (GCMs). Recent advance in remote sensing and operational weather forecasts have significantly improved the ability to monitor the hydrologic cycle over broad regions (Vörösmarty and Peterson, 2000). The application of hydrologic models in understanding interactions between the watersheds and estuaries is critical when examining seasonal changes in the biogeochemical cycles of estuaries. Water is the most abundant substance on the Earth’s surface with liquid water covering approximately 70% of the Earth. Most of the water (96%) in the reservoir on the Earth’s surface is in the global ocean. The remaining water, predominantly stored in the form of ice in polar regions, is distributed throughout the continents and atmosphere—estuaries represent a very small fraction of this total reservoir as a subcomponent of rivers. Water is moving continuously through these reservoirs. For example, there is a greater amount of evaporation than precipitation over the oceans; this imbalance is compensated by inputs from continental runoff. The most prolific surface runoff to the oceans is from rivers which discharge approximately 37,500 km3 y−1 (Shiklomanov and Sokolov, 1983). The 10 most significant rivers, in rank of water discharge, account for approximately 30% of the total discharge to the oceans (Milliman and Meade, 1983; Meade, 1996). The most significant source of evaporation to the global hydrologic cycle occurs over the oceans; this occurs nonuniformly and is well correlated with latitudinal gradients of incident radiation and temperature. The flow of water from the atmosphere to the ocean and continents occurs in the form of rain, snow, and ice. Average turnover times of water in these reservoirs can range from 2640 y in the oceans to 8.2 d (days) in the atmosphere (Henshaw et al., 2000; table 3.1). The aqueous constituents of organic materials, such as overall biomass, have an even shorter turnover time (5.3 d). These differences in turnover rate are critical in controlling rates of biogeochemical processes in aquatic systems.

The ever-wet climate at the centre of dipterocarp diversity in Southeast Asia is infrequently exposed to periods of drought. These can be crucial for determining the survival and reproduction of dipterocarps in this region. Dipterocarps respond to dry periods by drought avoidance and drought tolerance. Water stress can be delayed by improving water capture and enhancing water use efficiency. When these mechanisms reach their limits dipterocarps have varying abilities to adjust their physiological apparatus so as to maintain plant functions. Tolerance to water stress varies subject to soil and topographical conditions, and responses differ among seedlings, saplings and mature trees. Some species are relatively tolerant of dry periods whereas others appear highly sensitive. An understanding of dipterocarp responses to drought events is not only essential for understanding their ecology, but might be critical for projecting vulnerabilities of dipterocarps to future climate and land use changes. At the other extreme, many dipterocarps are exposed to periods of flooding, and this, as with drought, could also determine species performance at both local and regional scales.

Although most landscape architects use soils primarily for growing plants, sometimes they need to know how engineers look at soils. Engineers are not concerned about soil properties that relate to growing plants. Engineers consider soil as a support for building foundations, use in earthworks, a place for burying pipes that carry electricity, water, gas or oil, and as a tool for disposing of hazardous, municipal, industrial, and household wastes. Soil properties that engineers consider important are hydraulic conductivity (permeability), compressive strength, shear strength, and lateral pressures. Soil mechanics deals with stress/strain/time relationships. Some engineering properties of a soil that describe the relation of clays to water content were studied by a Swedish scientist, Atterberg, in 1911. Soil clays based on water content were categorized into solid, semi-solid, plastic, and liquid. The dividing lines between each of these four states are known as the “Atterberg limits,” that is, shrinkage limit (from solid to semisolid), plastic limit (from semi-solid to plastic), and liquid limit (from plastic to liquid). These points can be measured for individual clays. The Atterberg limits are used by engineers to classify soils based on their moisture properties. These limits are particularly useful for evaluating soil compressibility, permeability, and strength. The plasticity of a clay soil depends on the type and amount of clay mineral and organic materials present. Plasticity is the reaction a soil has to being deformed without cracking or crumbling. The “liquid limit” is a term indicating the amount of water in a soil between the liquid state and the plastic state. Soils are first divided into two categories of coarse-grained and fine-grained. Coarse-grained soils are those in which more than half of the material is larger than a no. 200 sieve. Fine-grained soils are those in which more than half of the material is smaller than a no. 200 sieve. Coarse-grained soils are further divided into two categories of gravels and sands. Gravels are those with more than half of the coarse material larger than a no. 4 sieve. Sands are those with more than half of the coarse material smaller than a no. 4 sieve.