Ljutic et al. (2026) Comparing Seasonal Soil Water Storage and Flow Processes Under Different Soil Conditions

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Hydrological Processes
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-04-01
• Authors: Amila Ljutic, Geneviève Ali, Laura Van Eerd, Merrin L. Macrae, Claudia Wagner‐Riddle
• DOI: 10.1002/hyp.70508

Research Groups

Agricultural research group(s) in Southern Ontario, Canada.

Short Summary

This study investigated soil moisture storage and flow dynamics over two years under three agricultural management treatments (control, cover crop, compacted soil) in Southern Ontario, Canada, revealing that vertical soil moisture profiles provide critical insights into flow pathways and storage capacity often missed by total water storage analyses.

Objective

• To examine how soil moisture storage and flow processes vary under different soil conditions and land management practices (control, cover cropped, compacted soil) in agricultural environments.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Experimental plots in Southern Ontario, Canada, focusing on the root zone (0–60 cm depth).
• Temporal Scale: Seasonal timescales during 2021 and 2022.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Not applicable; the study is experimental and observational.
• Data sources: In-situ experimental measurements of vertical soil moisture distributions from replicated plots (three replicates per treatment) under three agricultural management treatments: control (no-till), cover cropped, and compacted soil.

Main Results

• Despite similar inter-treatment soil water storage trends, compacted plots exhibited lower water storage capacity.
• Non-monotonic soil moisture profiles characterized 95% of the study period.
• When monotonic patterns were observed (4% of the time), control and cover crop treatments predominantly showed soil moisture increasing monotonically with depth, indicating better water infiltration and storage, while the compacted treatment showed the opposite.
• No dominant flow pathway was identified for 75% of timesteps, though flow pathways were more active in spring and fall with high spatial variability of inferred matrix and lateral preferential flow.
• Control and cover crop treatments each recorded four times more observations of capillary rise compared to the compacted treatment over both years.

Contributions

• Demonstrated that analyzing vertical soil moisture patterns provides crucial process insights into infiltration, storage, and flow pathways (e.g., capillary rise, preferential flow) that are not discernible from total soil water storage or water budget analyses alone.
• Quantified the distinct impacts of no-till, cover cropping, and soil compaction on soil moisture dynamics within the root zone.

Funding

• Not specified in the provided abstract.

Citation

@article{Ljutic2026Comparing,
  author = {Ljutic, Amila and Ali, Geneviève and Eerd, Laura Van and Macrae, Merrin L. and Wagner‐Riddle, Claudia},
  title = {Comparing Seasonal Soil Water Storage and Flow Processes Under Different Soil Conditions},
  journal = {Hydrological Processes},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1002/hyp.70508},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.70508}
}