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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Modelling water and chemical transport in large undisturbed soil cores using HYDRUS-2D

I. R. Phillips
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School of Environmental Engineering, Griffith University, Nathan, Qld 4111, Australia. Email: I.Phillips@griffith.edu.au

Australian Journal of Soil Research 44(1) 27-34 https://doi.org/10.1071/SR05109
Submitted: 8 August 2005  Accepted: 6 December 2005   Published: 10 February 2006

Abstract

The ability of HYDRUS-2D (HYDRUS) to simulate water and chemical transport in large, undisturbed cores of a Vertosol and a Podosol soil was investigated. Parameters required by HYDRUS for simulating water and chemical transport, and nitrogen transformation, were obtained from previously published laboratory studies. HYDRUS simulated the measured cumulative drainage and cumulative chloride (Cl) leaching behaviour very closely for both soil types, and also provided a very good description of coupled nitrogen transformation (conversion of ammonium to nitrate) and leaching (coefficient of model efficiency ∼1). There was little correlation between measured and predicted potassium (K+) leaching from the Podosol, suggesting that the mathematical equations governing the transport of reactive chemicals did not adequately reflect K+ behaviour in this coarse-textured soil. The reason for this discrepancy is unclear but may have been related to the use of sorption parameters obtained from batch rather than miscible displacement techniques, or mechanisms controlling K+ sorption were not well represented by the general non-linear sorption equation used by HYDRUS. The ability of HYDRUS to accurately simulate water and non-reactive chemical transport agrees with previous studies; however, more investigation into its suitability for predicting the movement reactive chemicals in soil is warranted.

Additional keywords: HYDRUS-2D, leaching, environmental risk, chemical transport model.


References


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