Influence of soil frost on infiltration of shrub coppice dune and dune interspace soils in southeastern Nevada

Authors

Wilbert H. Blackburn, USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Northwest Watershed Research Center, Boise, Idaho
M. Karl Wood, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico

Abstract

The influence of soil frost on the infiltration rate of shrub coppice dune and dune interspace soils was evaluated near Crystal Springs, Nevada, using simulated rainfall. The infiltration rate of the coppice dune soil was greater than the dune interspace soil under frozen or unfrozen conditions. Because of different vegetation cover and surface soil characteristics, coppice dune and dune interspace soils responded differently to freezing, thus imposing a spatial and temporal response to infiltration rate. Infiltration rate of soils with porous concrete frost increased as the soils thawed during simulated rainfall, but soils with nonporous concrete frost allowed very little infiltration to occur. Both coppice dune and dune interspace soils that were classified in January as having granular frost had a higher infiltration rate than the same unfrozen soils in March.

Recommended Citation

Blackburn, Wilbert H. and Wood, M. Karl (1990) "Influence of soil frost on infiltration of shrub coppice dune and dune interspace soils in southeastern Nevada," Great Basin Naturalist: Vol. 50: No. 1, Article 5.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/gbn/vol50/iss1/5