ИСТИНА

Soil structure defines most of soil functions: water and air transport, carbon and water storage, habitat of microorganisms and fauna, nutrient availability for plants and many other. In this work we are mainly focused on hydrological soil function as affected by its structure. To date there has been little research about dynamic of soil structure under different moisture regimes. Aim of this study is characterization of soil structure dynamics under fast soil moisture jumps. The experiment site is natural coniferous forest near Zelenogradskaya Research Station of V.V. Dokuchaev Soil Institute, Moscow region, Russian Federation (56o05’58.6”N, 37o49’13.5”E). The soil is Silt Loam Eutric Retisol, developed on clay loam mantle. The undisturbed soil samples (cylinders of D=2 cm, H=5 cm) were collected from genetic horizons (A, E, B) in five replicates. Contrast stationary conditions of water pressure were studies – such setup differs from our another poster by the pronounced soil moisture jumps. The experiment design included 5 steps: 1 – field moisture condition, 2 – plant wilting point, 3 – full water saturation condition, 4 – plant wilting point again, 5 – very dry condition. At each saturation step µCT imaging, 3D image analysis and quantification including structure properties characterization were performed. The reported study was funded by RFBR according to the research project No 18-34-20131.