IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/waterr/v31y2017i7d10.1007_s11269-017-1640-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing Soil Moisture Patterns Using a Soil Topographic Index in a Humid Region

Author

Listed:
  • Zeyuan Qiu

    (New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights)

  • Andrew Pennock

    (New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights)

  • Subhasis Giri

    (New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights)

  • Carole Trnka

    (New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights)

  • Xu Du

    (Montclair State University)

  • Hongmei Wang

    (Northwest A&F University)

Abstract

Knowledge of soil moisture is essential for soil conservation and efficient water resources management especially related to control nonpoint-source pollution. Soil topographic indices (STI) are often used to understand the soil moisture patterns in landscapes and make effective landscape management decisions. This study assessed the relationships between soil moisture measurements and STI values in two study sites in North-central New Jersey, USA. The soil moisture measurements were taken in these study sites using a time domain reflectometry probe during thirteen sampling events between April 2013 and July 2015. The STI values at the sampling points were derived from a 3-m LiDAR digital elevation model and SSURGO soil database. The Spearman’s correlation analysis based on these data in all sampling points identified a significant positive correlation between soil moisture and STI. Strong positive relationships between soil moisture and STI were also identified when using binned data to eliminate the impacts of unevenness in data distribution and the impacts of micro-variations in topography, vegetation, soil compaction, and instrumental errors. The linear mixed modeling results revealed significant and positive impacts of STI and precipitation, and significant but negative impacts of temperature on soil moisture. The degrees of these effects vary across two study sites, which reflect the complex and dynamic interactions among soils, topography and climate in landscapes that affect soil moisture. Given the stochastic nature of climate factors such as precipitation and temperature, the static STI would be a reliable factor to predict soil moisture patterns in the landscape. The findings support various STI-based conservation planning efforts in New Jersey and beyond such as targeting hydrologically sensitive areas for natural resources protection and preservation and best management practice implementation.

Suggested Citation

  • Zeyuan Qiu & Andrew Pennock & Subhasis Giri & Carole Trnka & Xu Du & Hongmei Wang, 2017. "Assessing Soil Moisture Patterns Using a Soil Topographic Index in a Humid Region," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 31(7), pages 2243-2255, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:waterr:v:31:y:2017:i:7:d:10.1007_s11269-017-1640-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s11269-017-1640-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11269-017-1640-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11269-017-1640-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Prashant K. Srivastava, 2017. "Satellite Soil Moisture: Review of Theory and Applications in Water Resources," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 31(10), pages 3161-3176, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:waterr:v:31:y:2017:i:7:d:10.1007_s11269-017-1640-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.