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Modelling water and solute transport through soil requires the characterisation of the soil hydraulic functions; however, determining these functions based on measurements is time-consuming and costly. Pedotransfer functions (PTFs), which make use of easily measurable soil properties to predict the hydraulic functions, have been proposed as an alternative to measurements. The better known and more widely used PTFs were developed in the USA or Europe, where large datasets exist. No specific PTFs have been published for New Zealand soils. To address this gap, we evaluated a range of published PTFs against an available dataset comprising a range of different soils from New Zealand and selected the best PTFs to construct an ensemble PTF (ePTF). Assessment (and adjustment when required) of published PTFs was done by comparing measurements and estimates of soil water content and the hydraulic conductivity at selected matric suction values. For each point, the best two or three PTFs were chosen to compose the ePTF, with correcting constants if needed. The outputs of the ePTF are the hydraulic properties at selected matric suctions, akin to obtaining measurements, thus allowing the fit of different equations as well as combining any available measurements. Testing of the ePTF showed promising performance, with reasonably accurate estimates of the water retention of an independent dataset. Root mean square error values averaged 0.06 [m.sup.3] [m.sup.-3] for various New Zealand soils, which is within the accuracy level of published PTF studies. The largest errors were found for soils with high clay content, for which the ePTF should be used with care. The performance of the ePTF for estimating soil hydraulic conductivity was not as reliable as for water content, exhibiting large scatter. Predictions of saturated hydraulic conductivity were of the same magnitude as the measurements, whereas the unsaturated values were generally under- predicted. The conductivity data available for this study were limited and highly variable. The estimates for hydraulic conductivity should therefore be used with much care, and future research should address measurements and analysis to improve the predictions. The cPTF was also used to parameterise the SWIM soil module for use in Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) simulations. Comparisons of drainage predicted by APSIM against results from lysimeter experiments suggest that the use of the derived ePTF is suited for the estimation of soil parameters for use in modelling. The ePTF is not envisaged as a substitute for measurements but is a useful tool to complement datasets with limited amounts of measured data. Additional keywords: APSIM, drainage, hydraulic conductivity, simulation modelling, soil water content, volcanic soils., Introduction Soil hydraulic characteristics are among the most important properties for characterising physical behaviour of a soil type. Quantitative descriptions of either the characteristic points (water content values at saturation, [...]

Nitrous oxide ([N.sub.2]O) emissions from agriculture are generally estimated using default IPCC emission factors (EFs) despite the large variation in measured EFs. We used a classification and regression tree (CART) analysis to segregate measured EFs from direct emissions from urine patches and fertiliser and effluent applications, based on temporal and site-specific factors. These segregated EFs were linked to simulations from the DairyNZ Whole Farm Model to obtain N20 emissions for a typical pasture-based dairy farm in New Zealand. The [N.sub.2]O emissions from urine patches, dung pads, and fertiliser and effluent application, as well as from indirect sources, were aggregated to obtain total [N.sub.2]O emissions for the farm-scale. The results, based on segregated EFs, were compared with those obtained using New Zealand-specific EFs. On-farm [N.sub.2]O emissions based on these segregated EFs were 5% lower than those based on New Zealand-specific EFs. Improved farm management by avoiding grazing, effluent, and N fertiliser application during periods of high risk for [N.sub.2]O emissions, or by the use of mitigation technologies such as nitrification inhibitors, could reduce annual farm scale [N.sub.2]O emissions. Additional keywords: CART analysis, fertiliser, nitrous oxide emission factors, [N.sub.2]O database NZ, urine. Received 13 March 2011, accepted 13 April 2012, published online 14 May 2012, Introduction Nitrous oxide ([N.sub.2]O) emissions from agricultural soils are a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in many countries, including New Zealand. Waste from animal excreta contributes as much [...]

The simultaneous retention of both cations and anions due to ion-pair adsorption (IPA) has been identified in several soils. The mechanism controlling IPA is not yet understood, however, and the mathematical description of this phenomenon is only incipient. In this study, a parameterization analysis was performed using a recently proposed adsorption model that considers the occurrence of IPA. The model, which has two alternative approaches to describe IPA, has been shown in a previous study to describe experimental data reasonably well. That analysis was incomplete, however, as the parameter uncertainties were not estimated. In this study, with the parameterization procedure using the maximum-likelihood method, a robust estimation of the model parameters, including the analysis of their uncertainties, was developed. The model was fitted to a data set obtained in batch experiments using the variable-charge Egmont soil, from New Zealand, and a comprehensive combination of [SO.sub.4] and Ca concentrations. This procedure allowed the analysis of some of the underlying model characteristics and also some inferences about the IPA phenomenon. Overall, it was shown that the proposed adsorption model is a useful tool for the modeling of solutes in soils where IPA occurs. Abbreviations: IPA, ion-pair adsorption; PGA, particle governed approach; SGA, solution governed approach.

The objectives of this study were (1) to compare the bioavailability of arsenic (As) to plants in an As-spiked agricultural soil and a naturally contaminated mine railings, (2) to compare the theoretical ability of various chemical amendments to solubilise As in naturally contaminated mine tailings, and (3) to examine the ability of Brassica juncea (Indian mustard) plants to remove the solubilised As from the soil and tailings. The growth media used for this study included mine tailings from a gold mine in Fiji contaminated with As (683 As mg/kg) due to the presence of arsenopyrite in the mined rock, and a pasture soil from New Zealand (Manawatu sandy loam) amended with lime and/or AS. Brassica juncea was grown in these substrates in a glasshouse. In a separate batch experiment, we examined the theoretical ability of several chemical extractants to solubilise AS from the mine tailings. Of the tested extractants, only hydrochloric acid (HCl) and a mixture containing ammonium oxalate [(N[H.sub.4]).sub.2][C.sub.2][O.sub.4], oxalic acid, and ascorbic acid were effective in extracting AS from the tailings. In the plant growth experiment, solutions of these 2 chemicals were used as soil amendments at 2 different concentrations to increase As uptake by 6-week-old, actively growing B. juncea plants. Arsenic bioavallability as a function of the growth media influenced the germination rate of B. juncea, the As concentration in the plants, and the water-soluble As concentration in the media. There was approximately a 3-fold reduction in the germination of seeds, and a 64- and 380-fold increase in As concentration in plant and soil solution, respectively, in the spiked Manawatu soil compared with the naturally contaminated Fiji mine railings. The spiking of soil with As did not mimic naturally contaminated railings in this experiment. The total amount of As taken up by B. juncea plants increased approximately 9 fold with the addition of the amendments. However, the phytoremediation capacity of B. juncea for As extraction in Fiji mine tailings was too low for efficient remediation even in the presence of solubilising chemicals. Additional keywords: Brassica juncea, bioavallability, liming, mine railings., Introduction Heavy metal contamination of soil is one of the world's major environmental problems, posing significant risks to plants, animals, and humans. Phytoremediation, defined as the use of plants to [...]

Effects of nitrogen losses through nitrate leaching are one of the major environmental issues worldwide. To determine the potential effect of dicyandiamide (DCD), a nitrification inhibitor, on the transformation of urea nitrogen and subsequent nitrate leaching, incubation and column leaching experiments were performed. Tokomaru silt loam soil was treated with urea, DCD, or urea plus DCD. A control was also used. In the laboratory incubation experiment, the conversion of urea to ammonium (i.e. ammonification process or urea hydrolysis) occurred within a day, thereby increasing the soil pH from 5.8 to 6.9. DCD did not affect the ammonification process. However, DCD did slow down the subsequent oxidation of ammonium to nitrate (i.e. nitrification process). The half-life time of ammonium in this soil was increased from 9 days for the urea treatment to 31 days for the urea + DCD treatment. The production of nitrate was 5 times slower when DCD was added. In the leaching experiments, half the columns were leached after 1 day of incubation (Day 1), the other half 7 days later (Day 7). For Day 1, no significant differences in nitrate leaching could be seen between the treatments, as the nitrification had not yet taken place. For Day 7, DCD decreased nitrate leaching by 71% with a corresponding decrease in nitrate-induced cation leaching, including ammonium. Thus, DCD seems to be effective in decreasing both ammonium and nitrate leaching, but its high solubility and thus mobility could be a limitation to its use. The convection-dispersion equation, including source-sink terms for nitrogen transformations, ammonification, and nitrification rate constants, and a factor for nitrification inhibition by DCD, accounting for degradation and efficiency of DCD, could be used reasonably well to simulate nitrate leaching from the column leaching experiments. However, model parameter values for nitrification rate, and efficiency and decay rate for DCD, were different from those obtained from the incubation experiments, which was probably because of the difference in water content of soil between the incubation and leaching experiments. Additional keywords: CDE (convection disperion equation), DCD decay rate, incubation, leaching experiment, ammonium., Introduction The high input of nitrogen (N) fertilisers to intensive pasture production systems poses a risk to the environment. In New Zealand, up to 200kgN/ha is applied annually to grass/clover [...]

Ion retention in variable-charge soils can be enhanced by the presence of certain ions with opposite charge, thereby influencing the movement of these ions through the soil profile. Studies examining these interactions are still incipient, however, especially regarding its modeling. We present results from batch and miscible displacement experiments describing [Ca.sup.2+] and S[O.sub.4.sup.2-] movement in a variable-charge soil from New Zealand. Evidence was found for ion-pair adsorption (IPA) of both [Ca.sup.2+]and S[O.sub.4.sup.2-] The results were modeled using the convection-dispersion equation (CDE), coupled with two different mathematical approaches proposed to account for IPA. The first approach related IPA to the single soil adsorption capacity, which is governed by particle-surface phenomena. For the second approach, IPA was related solely to the soil solution concentration. Both these approaches described the adsorption data from the batch experiment reasonably well, as well as the breakthrough curves from the miscible displacement experiments. The first approach showed better overall agreement. Significant differences were found, however, when the adsorption parameters were identified by fitting models to data from either batch or miscible displacement experiments. Although more studies are needed to better understand IPA, our results showed that the extent of IPA can be large and it should not be ignored when predicting S[O.sub.4.sup.2-] and [Ca.sup.2+] movement in variable-charge soils. Abbreviations: BTC, breakthrough curve; CDE, convection dispersion equation; IPA, ion-pair adsorption; PGA, particle governed approach; SGA, solution governed approach.

To determine the effect of wheel traffic and two different management practices on soil compaction and its consequences on physical and chemical soil properties, we measured penetration resistance, water infiltration, bulk density, macroporosity, chemical mobility, air permeability, and soil strength in a conventional orchard (integrated fruit-production program) with bare (sprayed with herbicides) rows and an organic apple orchard with grassed rows. Resistance measurements were taken both within the tree row and the wheel track, down to a depth of 0.35 to 0.40 m. The results indicate that compaction is greater in the wheel tracks under both management methods. Compaction in the wheel track was higher under organic than conventional management. Organic management resulted in a higher macroporosity in both the row and the wheel-track than conventional management. The 'close-to-saturation' infiltration rate was significantly greater within the row of the organic orchard (0.06 m/h) compared with the row of the conventional orchard (0.02 m/h), and compared with the wheel tracks (0.01 m/h). The precompression stress value in the top 100 mm, a measure of the soil strength, was low on all sites. The chemical mobilities were 57 and 50% in the organic orchard, and 86 and 93% in the conventional orchard, respectively, for wheel track and row. Apart from the compaction in the wheel track of the organic orchard, physical and chemical soil characteristics were in a better condition compared with the conventional orchard. Additional keywords: penetrometer, infiltration, chemical mobility, precompression stress, wheel track., Introduction Intensive trafficking in orchards by heavy machinery can cause soil compaction. This can change the soil structure and pore system (Peng et al. 2004), both pore size distribution and [...]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2005.07.005 Byline: Tessa Mills (a), Barbara Arnold (a), Siva Sivakumaran (a), Grant Northcott (b), Iris Vogeler (a), Brett Robinson (a), Cara Norling (a), Doris Leonil (c) Abstract: Pentachlorophenol (PCP) is a persistent organic pollutant (POP) previously used as a timber treatment chemical to prevent sap stain and wood rot. Commonly used in wood treatment industries for the last 50 years, there are now many sites worldwide that are contaminated with PCP. Although persistent, PCP is a mobile contaminant and therefore has a propensity to leach and contaminate surrounding environments. Both willow (Salix sp., 'Tangoio') and poplar (Populus sp. 'Kawa') growing in an open-ended plastic greenhouse were found to tolerate soil PCP concentrations of 250mgkg.sup.-1 or less and both species stimulated a significant increase in soil microbial activity when compared to unplanted controls. Both poplar and willow could not survive PCP concentrations above 250mgkg.sup.-1 in soil. Pentachlorophenol degradation occurred in both planted and unplanted pots, but a higher rate of degradation was observed in the planted pots. Soil contaminated by wood-treatment activities often contains co-contaminants such as B, Cr, Cu and As, that are also used as timber preservatives. An additional column leaching experiment, done along side the potted trial, found that PCP, B, Cr, Cu and As were all present in the column leachate. This indicates that although Cu, Cr and As are generally considered immobile in the soil, they were mobilised under our column conditions. If a contaminated site were to be hydraulically 'sealed' using plants, a reticulation irrigation system should be installed to capture any contaminant leachate resulting from heavy rains. This captured leachate can either be independently treated, or reapplied to the site. Our data demonstrate a reduction in soil hydraulic conductivity with repeated application of leachate containing PCP and metal compounds but the soil did not become anaerobic. This would need to be considered in site remediation design. Author Affiliation: (a) HortResearch, Sustainable Landuse Group, Private Bag 11030, Palmerston North, New Zealand (b) HortResearch, Ruakura Research Centre, Private Bag 3123, Hamilton, NZ (c) Universite de la Reunion, Maitrise sciences et techniques,Valorisation chimique et biologique du vegetal, Campus du Moufia, 15 avenue Rene Cassin, BP 7151-97 715 Saint-Denis messag cedex 9, France Article History: Received 16 December 2004; Revised 14 May 2005; Accepted 18 July 2005

Early sowing of winter cereals has been promoted as an alternative to catch crops for reducing nitrogen (N) leaching in intensively managed cropping systems. Underlying data for this are, however, scarce and it is unclear how year‐to‐year variations affect potential reductions in N leaching. Well‐tested cropping system models can be used to assess the impact of early sowing on crop yield and N leaching. We tested the ability of the Agricultural Production System Simulator (APSIM) to simulate grain yield, biomass, phenology, N uptake and N leaching from timely and early‐sown winter cereals. The evaluation was based on two extensive field experiments carried out in Denmark in continuous winter cereals systems with different N fertilization applications, and a farm experiment in Germany with a grass ley/winter wheat crop sequence and two different N fertilization rates. Additionally, observations from growth stages throughout Denmark were used. After changing a few crop model parameters, APSIM reproduced the general effects of N fertilization and crop sequence on yields and N uptake, as well as N leaching. The model was then used to simulate the effect of sowing time on grain yield over a period of 10 years, to capture year‐to‐year variability and enable a better evaluation of the efficacy of early sowing for reducing N leaching. In the continuous winter cereal systems, early sowing reduced N leaching at both sites in Denmark. In contrast, in the grass ley/winter wheat system in Germany early sowing increased N leaching, due to enhanced mineralization of grass residues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optimum nitrogen (N) fertilization, which aims for high productivity while minimizing N losses to the environment, requires a better understanding of the N leaching behaviour around the recommended N rate. A study was conducted with increasing N fertilization levels over 3 years (2016–2019) with early and timely sown winter cereals (rye and wheat) at two sites in Denmark with different climatic conditions. For winter rye N fertilizer application rates ranged from 0 to 258 kg N ha‒1, and for winter wheat from 0 to 300 kg ha‒1. Grain yields did not respond much to the N application above the recommended rate. Nitrate (NO3) leaching was very low in the first period, but increased in the second and third period. The effect of a potential N carry‐over on marginal N leaching (defined as the additional N leaching per unit of additional N fertilizer applied) is large. Under early sown winter rye, marginal N leaching is reduced from 36 to 14 kg N ha‒1 in the third period following N fertilization of the recommended rate of 170 kg N ha‒1 when carry‐over was accounted for, and under the timely sown winter rye from 68 to 24 kg N ha‒1. Our results show that marginal N leaching around the recommended rate is almost linear at the study site, when carry‐over is accounted for. Thus, the use of precision agriculture, with lower fertilization application rates to areas with high residual soil N, is less effective compared with sites, which have an exponential leaching behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As commented in our paper (Vogeler et al. 2016) and pointed out by Lynn (2017), there is a large demand for production and environmental analyses on medium and large spatial [...]

To investigate a rapid, nondestructive way of characterizing solute transport properties, time domain reflectometry (TDR) and disk permeametry have been used in combination. Calibration measurements had previously related TDR measurements to both the volumetric water content and the pore water concentration of [Cl.sup.-]. Laboratory measurements from a horizontal TDR probe were used to estimate transport parameters in a soil column by applying a one-dimensional numerical model in an inverse sense. A vertical TDR probe was used to provide independent verification of these parameters. A repacked column of Ramiha silt loam (an Andic Dystrochrept) was used under unsaturated, transient flow conditions. The disk permeameter, set to a pressure head of - 50 mm and containing a solution of 0.032 M KCl, was placed straight onto the repacked soil column, which had an initial water content of 0.32 [m.sup.3] [m.sup.-3]. The soil wet to 0.60 [m.sup.3] [m.sup.-3] However, in the columns only an envelope of [Cl.sup.-] concentration could be obtained, due to exchange between the initially resident [Ca.sup.2+] and the invading [K.sup.+]. This illustrates why cation exchange needs to be considered when TDR is used to infer solute movement. From the numerical simulations, values for the solute dispersivity and the retardation were found to be 2.3 mm and 1.2, respectively. The retardation is shown to be due to the anion-exchange capacity varying with the concentration of the invading soil solution.

Time domain reflectometry (TDR) possesses potential for determining solute-transport parameters, such as dispersion coefficients and retardation factors for reactive solutes. We developed a simple method based on peak-to-peak measurements of water and solute velocities through the soil using TDR. The method was tested by carrying out unsaturated leaching experiments in the laboratory on two soil columns packed with a South Pacific soil from Mare, which is a ferrasol with variable surface charge. One column was left bare and the other was planted with mustard. Pulses of Ca[Br.sub.2] and Ca[([NO.sub.3]).sub.2] were applied to the surface of either wet or dry soil and then leached by water from a rainfall simulator applied at a steady rate of between 30 and 45 mm [h.sup.-1]. Water and solute transport were monitored by collecting the effluent. Contemporaneous in situ measurements of the water content and electrical conductivity were made using TDR. Transport parameters for the convection-dispersion equation, with a linear adsorption isotherm, were obtained from the flux concentration and the solute resident concentrations measured by TDR. Anion retardations between 1.2 and 1.7, and dispersivities between 1 and 9 mm, were found. Retardations also were calculated using our simple approach based on TDR-measured water and solute front velocities. These used TDR measurements of soil water content and bulk soil electrical conductivity with time, and were similar to those obtained from the effluent. The agreement suggests TDR could be a valuable in situ technique for obtaining the parameters relating to reactive solute transport through soil.