Search results for "Macropore"
showing 10 items of 33 documents
The effect of ant mounds on overland flow and soil erodibility following a wildfire in eastern Spain
2010
This study examines the soil hydrological and erosional effects of ant mounds during summer and winter conditions following a wildfire in scrub terrain in eastern Spain. Forty rainfall simulations (1 m2 plots, 1 h duration, 78 mm h−1 intensity) were carried out over plots with mounds (n = 20) and mound-free control plots (n = 20) in August 2002, and repeated in December. By winter, some of the mound material had been removed and some vegetation regrowth occurred. Overall, mound presence increased soil erodibility in summer and winter due to the availability of highly erodible mound material. However, mound plots showed higher mean overland flow rates in summer (10·1 vs 6·9% for control plot…
Use of BEST Procedure to Assess Soil Physical Quality in the Baratz Lake Catchment (Sardinia, Italy)
2016
Conversion of Mediterranean maquis and/or natural forest into agro-pastoral lands is a cause of soil degradation in many Mediterranean areas. Indicators of soil physical quality (SPQ) quantitatively linked to soil hydraulic properties are a valuable tool to assess the effect of land use changes. In this investigation, the Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters (BEST) procedure for soil hydraulic characterization was used to estimate SPQ indicators. Four areas of the Baratz Lake watershed, Sardinia, Italy, characterized by both typical natural vegetation (holm oak [ Quercus ilex L.] forest and high maquis) and degraded vegetation (grassland established after fire or clearing of the m…
Ant mounds as a source of sediment on citrus orchard plantations in eastern Spain. A three-scale rainfall simulation approach
2011
Abstract Ants are widely found in Mediterranean soils, where they increase water infiltration rates by forming soil macropores during nest construction. While higher water infiltration usually results in lower soil erosion rates, new soil brought to the surface by ant activity could increase sediments available for erosion. This could be especially important in intensively-managed citrus orchards, where surface mineral soil is exposed due to the lack of vegetation cover as a consequence of herbicide treatments. In the summer of 2009 rainfall simulations of low frequency–high intensity rainstorms were conducted in an orange orchard in eastern Spain on plots that contained ant nests and adjac…
Comprehensive pore structure characterization of silica monoliths with controlled mesopore size and macropore size by nitrogen sorption, mercury poro…
2005
The porosity of monolithic silica columns is measured by using different analytical methods. Two sets of monoliths were prepared with a given mesopore diameter of 10 and 25 nm, respectively and with gradated macropore diameters between 1.8 and 7.5 microm. After preparing the two sets of monolithic silica columns with different macro- and mesopores the internal, external and total porosity of these columns are determined by inverse size-exclusion chromatography (ISEC) using polystyrene samples of narrow molecular size distribution and known average molecular weight. The ISEC data from the 4.6 mm analytical monolithic silica columns are used to determine the structural properties of monolithi…
Pore structural characterization of monolithic silica columns by inverse size-exclusion chromatography
2007
In this work, a parallel pore model (PPM) and a pore network model (PNM) are developed to provide a state-of-art method for the calculation of several characteristic pore structural parameters from inverse size-exclusion chromatography (ISEC) experiments. The proposed PPM and PNM could be applicable to both monoliths and columns packed with porous particles. The PPM and PNM proposed in this work are able to predict the existence of the second inflection point in the experimental exclusion curve that has been observed for monolithic materials by accounting for volume partitioning of the polymer standards in the macropores of the column. The appearance and prominence of the second inflection …
Evaluation and comparison of the pore structure and related properties of particulate and monolithic silicas for liquid phase separation processes
2002
Two types of silicas, highly porous beads of 10 μm average particle diameter and particle porosity between 48 to 86 % and monolithic silicas with constant mesopore diameter of 12 nm, constant total porosity of 80 % at variable macropore diameter between 2 and 6 μm were subjected to pore structural characterisation and tests in high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The column permeability KF of the columns packed with highly porous beads was twice as much as for the monolithic silica columns. The differences in theoretical plate height - linear velocity curves could be explained on the basis of the pore connectivity values nT of the materials which were computed from the nitrogen so…
Silica-based macrocellular foam monoliths with hierarchical trimodal pore systems
2005
Abstract Silica-based large monoliths exhibiting a trimodal hierarchical pore system have been successfully prepared through a nanotectonic approach starting from sub-micro/nanometric mesoporous particles (as building blocks), and using a polyurethane foam as macrotemplate. Large trimodal pieces with macrocellular like interconnected macropores in the micrometer range are a mineralized replica of the polyurethane foam. Textural large-mesopores/macropores (in the 20–70 nm range) have their origin in the inter-particle voids. The small intra-particle mesopore system (with pore diameters around 2–3 nm) is due to the supramolecular templating effect of the surfactant.
Standardizing the use of fast-field cycling NMR relaxometry for measuring hydrological connectivity inside the soil
2019
Hydrological connectivity inside the soil (HCS) is applied to study the effects of heterogeneities in complex environmental systems. It refers to both the spatial patterns inside the soil (i.e., structural connectivity [SC]) and the physical–chemical processes at a molecular level (i.e., functional connectivity [FC]). NMR relaxometry has been already applied to assess both SC and FC components of the HCS by defining SC and FC indexes. Here, fast-field cycling NMR relaxometry has been applied on a water suspended soil and a sediment to optimize the conditions to standardize the technique. Proton Larmor frequencies (ωL) from 0.01 to 25 MHz were used on samples suspended in three different rat…
Critical assessment of particle size analysis of porous silica microbead high-performance liquid chromatographic packings by photosedimentation
1979
Abstract Particle size analysis of commercial spherical silica packings of graduated pore size by means of photosedimentation (PS) is critically examined and compared to results obtained by microscopy. To avoid particle fractionation, the suspension prepared for PS measurements should be subjected to gentle ultrasonic treatment. For computing the particle size distribution, the effective density of solvent-filled porous particles has to be inserted into the Stokes equation. Reproducibility of d p , estimated by PS is found to be largely dependent upon the accuracy of the specific pore volume determination. Satisfactory agreement of data between PS and microscopy is obtained for all products…
The effect of alternating different water qualities on accumulation and leaching of solutes in a Mediterranean cracking soil
2002
The relevance of bypass flow on water flow, solute or pesticide transport is becoming increasingly recognized. Recent investigations proved that soil salinization may be influenced by bypass flow, i.e. the rapid transport of water and solutes via macropores and/or shrinkage cracks to subsoil and groundwater. This paper explores the role of bypass flow in the process of accumulation and leaching of solutes, as well as of sodium, in a Mediterranean cracking soil irrigated with saline/sodic waters. The results of bypass flow experiments performed on undisturbed soil cores showed that leaching of solutes occurred in concomitance with bypass fluxes when a low salinity solution was alternated wit…