When a soil contains as much water as it can hold against gravity, it issaid to be at field capacity. The amount of water present at fieldcapacity depends on the soil type. Soils with fine particles have manysmall pores and much total particle surface area, and can hold morewater than coarse soils (Fig. 3.11). A clay soil at field capacity mayhold 55% water on a dry-weight basis (i.e. 55 g water per 100 g drysoil), while a coarse sand may hold only 17%. Once the water contenthas fallen to field capacity, there is almost no movement of liquidwater in the soil, though water evaporates to the atmosphere.The C of a soil at field capacity is very high, just below zero (unlessthe soil is highly saline) and uptake by plants can proceed freely. Asthe water content of a soil falls, its C decreases progressively. Theconcentration of solutes rises and the Cp falls and the smallervolumes of water between soil particles have more curved menisci;this increases the surface tension forces and lowers the C. Also, as theouter layers of water are removed from the surface films, the innerlayers are held more strongly by electric charges and van der Waalsforces. At first the lowering of the soil C is matched by lowering ofthe C in the plant and water absorption continues. Eventually a stageis reached, however, when the soil C falls so low that the plant can nolonger obtain enough water to compensate for transpirational losses,and it wilts. At first this may be temporary, the plant wilting by daybut recovering at night, when the transpiration is low and wateruptake catches up with water loss. Eventually there comes the per-manent wilting point (PWP), defined as the stage when the plantwill not recover from wilting unless more water is added to the soil.Numerically the PWP is expressed as the percentage of water left in
đang được dịch, vui lòng đợi..