Seasonal variation in tracer movement in a forested experimental plot using manual and automated sampling techniques
Abstract
In recent years, implications associated with groundwater contamination have increased the efforts of researchers studying solute transport through the unsaturated soil zone near the ground surface (vadose zone). Success in tracking the movement of water, solutes, and the development of vadose zone hydrologic models requires high-quality field data. However, near continuous, spatially distributed soil moisture and matric potential data sets are rare because conventional soil parameter instrumentation is point-based and labor intensive. An automated vadose zone monitoring system (AVM) was developed to complement a set of manually monitored instrument arrays in an effort to address the quality and quantity of data collected in the vadose zone. Tracer (tritium) movement was evaluated for winter and summer irrigation applications on a forested field plot on the Atlantic Coastal Plain in South Carolina. Tritiated water was applied in two pulse events through an irrigation system and breakthrough data were measured from soil cores, suction lysimeters and soil vapor wells in the field. Measured breakthrough data for both winter and summer tracer applications were compared to solute transport solutions and modeled using numerical modeling software. The data from automated and manual sampling systems were used to evaluate the results of a one dimension hydrologic model that predicted the movement of water and a tracer (tritium) movement associated with winter and summer irrigation events.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004AGUFM.H31D0439S
- Keywords:
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- 1829 Groundwater hydrology;
- 1832 Groundwater transport;
- 1875 Unsaturated zone;
- 1894 Instruments and techniques