TY - JOUR
T1 - Tile drain sampling of preferential flow on a field scale
AU - Richard, Tom L.
AU - Steenhuis, Tammo S.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported in part by the Northern New York Water Management Project. The authors would like to thank Larry Geohring for his assistance with the experimental aspects of the study, and Steve Trudgill and other anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on the manuscript.
PY - 1988/12
Y1 - 1988/12
N2 - Preferential flow phenomena generally exhibit a high degree of spatial variability. In an alternative to geostatistl approaches, which aggregate many small-scale sample results, tile drains were explored as a means to measure solute movement on a scale which integrates spatial variability within the sampling volume. To evaluate the effectiveness of this method, a mass balance accounting of a conservative tracer, chloride, was attempted over a seven-month period. Analysis of the drain effluent indicated rapid breakthrough of surface-applied chloride, with concentrations rising within four hours of rainfall initiation. This traveltime was over two orders of magnitude more rapid than that predicted by homogenous flow models, indicating the importance of preferential flow in the transport of solutes through this field. Close agreement between the amount of chloride initially applied and the cumulative chloride recovered by the end of the experiment indicates the ability of tile drains to intercept solute movement.
AB - Preferential flow phenomena generally exhibit a high degree of spatial variability. In an alternative to geostatistl approaches, which aggregate many small-scale sample results, tile drains were explored as a means to measure solute movement on a scale which integrates spatial variability within the sampling volume. To evaluate the effectiveness of this method, a mass balance accounting of a conservative tracer, chloride, was attempted over a seven-month period. Analysis of the drain effluent indicated rapid breakthrough of surface-applied chloride, with concentrations rising within four hours of rainfall initiation. This traveltime was over two orders of magnitude more rapid than that predicted by homogenous flow models, indicating the importance of preferential flow in the transport of solutes through this field. Close agreement between the amount of chloride initially applied and the cumulative chloride recovered by the end of the experiment indicates the ability of tile drains to intercept solute movement.
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U2 - 10.1016/0169-7722(88)90038-1
DO - 10.1016/0169-7722(88)90038-1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0024163194
SN - 0169-7722
VL - 3
SP - 307
EP - 325
JO - Journal of Contaminant Hydrology
JF - Journal of Contaminant Hydrology
IS - 2-4
ER -