ABSTRACTS

FIBERGLASS WICKS FOR SAMPLING OF WATER AND SOLUTES IN THE VADOSE ZONE
BOLL J, STEENHUIS TS, SELKER JS

Sampling solute concentrations in the vadose zone provides an early-warning system for groundwater pollution. Various sampling devices are available. This study evaluates the functionality of fiberglass wicks in a soil solution sampler. Fiberglass wicks act as a hanging water column, drawing water from the undisturbed field soil without external application of suction. Flow characteristics of wicks were observed in the laboratory by miscible-displacement tests using Br and an organic dye. The matric potential in the wick as a function of flow rate was measured. Fiberglass wicks behaved like a porous medium that effectively could apply a suction to the soil while only minimally retarding the organic dye. The relationship between matric potential, moisture content, and unsaturated conductivity was determined for several wicks. Based on these relationships, a set of curves was produced depicting travel time of nonadsorbed chemicals and the matric potential in the wick as a function of flow rate. These curves can be used for selecting optimum wick length and diameter for a given sampler configuration.

Frequency distribution of water and solute transport properties derived from pan sampler data
Boll J, Selker JS, Shalit G, Steenhuis TS

Modeling of water and solute movement requires knowledge of the nature of the spatial distribution of transport parameters. Only a few of the field experiments reported in the literature contained enough measurements to discriminate statistically between lognormal and normal distributions. To obtain statistically significant data sets, six field experiments at four different sites were performed. Different degrees of macropore and matrix flow occurred at each site. In each experiment a solute pulse was added followed by artificial or natural rainfall. Sixteen thousand spatial distributed fluxes and solute concentrations were collected with wick and gravity samplers. Spatial distributions of solute velocity, dispersion coefficient, water flux, and solute concentration were determined over different timescales ranging from 1 hour to the duration of the experiment. A chi-square test was used to discriminate between the type of frequency distributions. The spatially distributed water and solute transport parameters when averaged over the experimental period were found to fit the lognormal distribution when macropore flow dominates. Otherwise, when only matrix flow occurs a normal distribution fitted the data better. Under no-till cultivation, hourly concentration and water flux are lognormally distributed, while tillage makes the tracer concentration to be normally distributed. Spatial frequency distributions of daily solute concentration change in time: Concentrations were normally distributed when the bulk of the solute broke through with the highest concentrations and lognormally distributed in the beginning and end of the experiment. Daily water flux was found to be lognormally distributed throughout the experiment, but the distribution varied between water applications: Shortly after water application, when wick and gravity pan samplers collected water predominantly from macropores and normally distributed at later times when mostly matrix pores were sampled with wick pan samplers.

WICK SAMPLERS - AN EVALUATION OF SOLUTE TRAVEL-TIMES
RIMMER A, STEENHUIS TS, SELKER JS, ALBRECHT GJ

Wick samplers have the potential to improve solute sampling in the vadose zone, but more information is needed about the effect of soil-wick sampling interface disturbances on measured fluxes and solute concentrations. The objective of this paper is to examine how the wick sampler alters the matric potential, streamlines, and solute concentrations in the native soil. Both theoretical analysis and experimental studies were performed. An equation for travel time was developed that included the effect of changes in moisture content in the soil when a wick sampler is installed. Experimental measurements of pressure head near the soil-wick interface were taken, and a travel time moment analysis of narrow solute pulses was conducted for several steady flow experiments, Model and theory agreed well and showed that even when the capillary length alpha(-1) is similar in the soil and wick, dissimilarity of the hydraulic conductivity and cross-section flow area may significantly affect soil moisture content above the soil-wick interface and on the solute pulse travel time. It was also found that in many cases solute pulse travel time was affected more by the pressure head changes that occurred at the soil-wick interface than by the flow through the wick.