Journal of Water and Land Development (Jan 2024)

Moisture content of peat-moorsh soils with special attention to periods of drought

  • Ryszard Oleszczuk,
  • Jan Jadczyszyn,
  • Janusz Urbański,
  • Ewelina Zając,
  • Andrzej Brandyk,
  • Jacek Niedźwiecki

DOI
https://doi.org/10.24425/jwld.2023.148448
Journal volume & issue
no. No 59
pp. 234 – 247

Abstract

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The paper presents the course of variability of the moisture content of the top layers in shallow (45 cm) and medium-deep (90 cm) peat-moorsh soil profiles in the years 2015–2019 against the background of the same meteorological conditions and a similar level of the groundwater table. The relative precipitation index ( RPI) classifies the years 2015 and 2016 as dry, 2017 as wet, and 2018 and 2019 as average. For periods of atmospheric droughts, the average daily climatic water balance ( CWB) ranged from –5.30 to –1.35 mm∙d –1. The water table did not fall below 90 cm b.g.l. during the entire study period, and the range of its fluctuations was 8 cm greater in the shallow than in the medium-deep profile. The range of moisture at different depths varied significantly and ranged from approx. 6% in periods of drought to about 80% in wet periods. Soil moisture throughout the measurement period was above the plant available water range (p F > 4.2). The occurrence of soil drought in the shallow peat-moorsh soil profile had a range of up to 40 cm, and in the medium-deep profile of up to 30 cm. The sequence of no-precipitation days and the maximum amount of daily evapotranspiration during them determine the possible timing of drought; however, it is the precipitation distribution in individual months, considered in the current CWB values, that ultimately determine the formation of soil water resources at the research site.

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