The work reported herein was performed under the annual allotment from the Office of Water Resources Research to the Oregon Water Resources Research Institute. Funds were available over a three year period, but due to difficulty in acquiring graduate students, the total time spent on the project was only 21...
The work reported herein constitutes a final report for a project funded by the U.S. Department of Interior, Office of Water Resources and Technology, Grant No. 14-31-0001-4218.
This report is one of a series issued in cooperation with the Army-Navy-Civil Committee on Aircraft Design Criteria under the supervision of the Aeronautical Board.
This report is one of a series issued in cooperation with the Army-Navy-Civil Committee on Aircraft Design Criteria under the supervision of the Aeronautical Board.
Data on soil temperature at two locations and five depths, tensiometer readings, and soil moisture release curves for the soils of Findley Lake are presented in this report.
The following report Introduces a documentation scheme for flow
oriented ecosystem models and shows its application to a carbon-water
model developed within the coniferous biome. This documentation scheme
has remained operative through revision of this model and expansion of
It to include nutrient flows. This model and subsequent versions are...
Measurement of plant moisture stress of 1-2 m understory conifers
was made in "reference stands" on the H. J. Andrews Experimental
Forest in 1970-1972. Maximum stress each year (measured between midnight
and dawn) is closely correlated with the position of each community
along one axis of an ordination of the...
Published September 1960. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
The Calapooia River, a major tributary of the Willamette River in western Oregon, is a watershed typical of many found in the Willamette Basin. Public and private forested lands occur in the steep Upper Zone of the watershed, mixed forest and agriculture lands are found in the Middle Zone, and...
Soil infiltration and wettability measurements during the first year following a broadcast burn in the Siskiyou Mountains of
southwest Oregon, have illustrated the magnitude of the effects of light-to-moderate intensity burning on hydrological soil
properties. A prescribed fire near White Creek in late spring significantly reduced soil infiltration for 4...
The objective of this study was to estimate the bulk densities and points on the moisture-tension curves and to determine their associated variances for some of the selected mapping units in Central Oregon. These variances will produce informations concerning the precision of the mean and the optimum sampling schemes, for...
A Study conducted at The Island, Lake Billy Chinook, in Central Oregon, examined
differences in the pattern of soil properties between a sagebrush-grass and a juniper-sagebrush-grass community. Juniper invasion is linked with the desertification
process in which the sagebrush shrubs and perennial grasses decline. Patterns in soil
nutrients and other...
Approximately 3-4 month-old containerized Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) seedlings (seed zone 262 and 271) were subjected to 6 moisture stress treatments (65, 53, 41, 29, 17 and 7% soil water content by volume of dry soil) starting July 4 to September 22, 1991 at Forest Research Laboratory's greenhouse at...
Soils are the largest terrestrial pool of carbon, therefore it is critical to understand
what controls soil carbon efflux to the atmosphere in light of current climate uncertainty.
The primary efflux of carbon from soil is soil respiration which is typically categorized
into autotrophic and heterotrophic respiration. These two components...
Soil moisture and temperature regimes during spring-summer 1996 were evaluated
in plots with compaction and organic residues treatments established in 1993 at three sites
in the Sierra National Forest after forest harvesting. The results indicate that the bare
condition (non-compacted soil with total removal of the harvesting residues and forest...
The links between forests, streamflow, and climate are poorly understood. Despite hundreds of studies over the past 60 years, fundamental questions of forests' effects on the hydrologic cycle remain unanswered. The hydrological cycle involves mutually-dependent biological and physical processes that operate at multiple scales of time and space, and this...
Published June 1923. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
Published June 1927. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
Published January 1931. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) ranging
from 9.6 to 14.3 inches diameter breast height were treated with
the organic arsenicals, monosodium methanearsonate (MSMA) and
cacodylic acid. Treatments were applied at monthly intervals from
February, 1967 to October, 1968, to ten to 25 trees each month.
Treated trees were sampled in...
The role of moisture stress in seedling physiology and establishment
was studied in both the field environment and laboratory
experiments. Plant moisture stress was measured using the pressure
chamber technique. This technique was modified and tested using a
fascicle of pine needles as a sample, an improvement which allows the...
Flexible cropping systems allow for an opportunistic change in an established rotation. Plant-available soil water is the most reliable indicator of potential yield.
Soil respiration, or the combined CO₂ emissions from roots and soil microorganisms, constitutes one of the largest losses of carbon (C) from terrestrial ecosystems. The major drivers of soil respiration, which include soil moisture, temperature, and substrate quality, have been known for some time. Nevertheless,
correlations between these drivers and...
Published August 1914. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
A proposed state-and-transition model (STM) for the Deep Sand Savannah ecological site in central New Mexico was developed using historical data and expert knowledge. This STM was tested utilizing data from short and long term one-seed juniper (Juniperus monosperma (Engelm.) Sarg.) control experiments initiated in 1981 and 1985. Utilizing data...
Declared out of print March 2010. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
The Oregon Water Quality Decision Aid (OWQDA) is
a first-tier screening tool that allows you to make a broad
determination of the likelihood that a specific chemical,
when applied to a specific Oregon soil, will move through
the soil and contaminate groundwater. This determination
is called the groundwater vulnerability rating.
Little is known about biophysical controls on soil respiration in California’s Sierra Nevada oldgrowth, mixed-conifer forests. Using portable and automated soil respiration sampling units, we measured soil respiration rate (SRR) in three dominant patch types: closed canopy (CC), ceanothus-dominated patches (CECO), and open canopy (OC). SRR varied significantly among the...
Soft white winter wheat grown in western Oregon requires a spring application of nitrogen (N) fertilizer for optimum production. Determining the amount of N to apply has been a challenge for growers because wheat is produced in numerous rotations that provide varying amounts of N to the wheat crop. Inadequate...
Soft white winter wheat is grown in western Oregon and requires a spring application of nitrogen (N) fertilizer for optimum production. Determining the amount of N to apply has been a challenge for growers. Wheat obtains N from two sources: soil and fertilizer. Both available and mineralizable N can be...
Published July 1981. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
Often low intake rate soils need special consideration when
applying water during an irrigation. Surface flooding for extended
periods may cause adverse crop growth conditions. Properly
designed sprinkler systems often eliminate irrigation problems,
because the application rate and quantity of water applied can be
readily controlled.
Research workers who have...
Seed moisture content is the most reliable indicator of seed maturity and harvest timing in grass seed crops. There are two significant times during harvest that knowledge of seed moisture is critical: at swathing and at combining. Swathing within the correct range of seed moisture content will maximize seed yield...
One of the most important tools we have been using at the Malheur Agricultural Experiment Station over the past two decades is the granular matrix sensor (GMS, Watermark Soil Moisture Sensor, Irrometer Co., Riverside, CA), which measures soil moisture. It is only about 3 inches long and normally is buried...
Una de las herramientas más eficaces utilizadas por el Malheur Experiment Station durante las últimas dos décadas es el sensor matricial granular (o GMS por sus siglas en inglés), el cual mide la humedad del suelo. El sensor tiene sólo 7,5 cm de largo, y normalmente se entierra verticalmente en...
This publication focuses on how to design a soil nutrient monitoring strategy that fits today’s requirements for record keeping and increased accuracy in managing nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and other nutrients. We advocate the use of management units or zones for soil testing and nutrient application. To measure a real...
Soil moisture in a crop's root zone must be regularly
monitored to accurately predict crop water requirements.
Most irrigation scheduling services currently
use the neutron probe to monitor soil moisture. Unfortunately,
there is a degree of variability associated
with use of the neutron probe creating uncertainty in
measurements of soil...
Published March 1944. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
As ornamental container nurseries face diminishing water allocations, many are looking to automated irrigation solutions to increase their water application efficiency. This thesis presents the findings of a study conducted at a commercial container nursery to determine 1) whether a capacitance or load cell sensor was better suited for monitoring...
Achieving and maintaining sustainability in irrigated agriculture production in the era of rapidly increasing stress on our natural resources require, among other essential actions, optimum control and management of the applied water. Thus, a significant upgrade of the currently available soil water monitoring technologies is needed. The primary goal of...
The human health effects of acute exposure to high levels of ionizing radiation are well understood; however, when these irradiations occur at low levels, there is controversy as to their potential health threat (BEIR V, 1990). For individuals living in areas where the level of naturally occurring background radiation is...
In order to determine the physical location of contaminants in soil, two solidified soil
"thin" sections, which preserve the undisturbed structural characteristics of the original
soil, containing weapons-grade plutonium from the Rocky Flats Environmental Test Site
were prepared. Two autoradiographic methods were used in radionuclide mapping:
contact autoradiography using CR-39®...
The application of the widely used Penrnan-Monteith evapotranspiration equation to hybrid poplar trees is impossible without a valid surface resistance. The increase in applications of drip-irrigated hybrid poplar trees for wood chip stock and veneer production, as well as bioremediation, constitutes a need for estimating the evapotranspiration of these trees....
Based on the determination of the zero-flux plane, a water balance procedure
for large-scale experimental databases was automated to estimate the soil water
balance based on soil water content distribution with depth through time. The
automated procedure was verified using data from the BOREAS project obtained in
three Intensive Field...
Safety concerns at the Hanford Reservation require a way to measure the
moisture content of material contained in the high level radioactive waste tanks. The
freezing of material next to a probe was proposed by scientists at Pacific Northwest
Laboratories (PNL) as one approach to solve this problem. It was...
Soil water content and water potential are two important parameters in
determining the status of water in the soil. Improvement in the ability to measure these
parameters by way of increased speed, accuracy, resolution, imaging volume, ease of
automation, as well as reduced calibration requirements and reduced soil disturbance
would...
Dry land agriculture using summer fallow is a common crop production
practice in the Columbia Plateau region of eastern Oregon. Farmed-over level
terraces are used to control surface water runoff and soil erosion. More than
70 percent of the average annual precipitation around Pendleton, Oregon (350 -
400 mm) falls...
Sandy soils are among the least productive soils because of their inability to
store adequate water for plant growth. Their high percolation rate not only allows
water to move quickly beyond the root zone, but also washes nutrients below the reach
of plant roots. High evaporation occurs from the soil...
Woody biomass transportation costs and market values/costs are strongly correlated with the woody biomass moisture content. Properly managing moisture content can potentially lead to economic and environmental advantages in biomass energy markets. Good management requires accurate moisture content measurements. Therefore, availability of accurate, precise, reliable, and efficient tools to assess...
Soil solution samplers have certain inadequacies that limit their range of
possible applications. Passive Capillary Samplers (PCAPS), which apply suction to the
soil pore-water via a fiber glass wick, have shown promising results in preliminary
experiments in regard to collection efficiency of water and of bromide tracers. The
objectives of...
This publication discusses the use of granular matrix sensors (GMS) for monitoring soil moisture content. It explains how to install GMS and use the recorded data for irrigation scheduling.
Explica el uso de los sensores matriciales granulares para la medición de la tensión de humedad del suelo. Explica cómo instalar estos sensores y cómo usar los datos registrados para la programación del riego. (Discusses the use of granular matrix sensors (GMS) for monitoring soil moisture content . Explains how...
Freeze/thaw cycles are numerous in agricultural soils of the Pacific Northwest. Potential loss of soil by erosion is high whenever a soil thaws from the surface creating a saturated soil overlying an impermeable frozen layer. Field studies were conducted to investigate the effect of surface residue on soil freezing. Residue...
Vertisols and other vertic-intergrade soils are found all over the globe, including many agricultural and urban areas. These soils are characterized by their cyclical shrinking and swelling behaviors, where bulk density and porosity distribution both vary as functions of time and/or soil moisture. In turn, alterations in physical soil parameters...
The use of cover crops in young vineyards is not widely accepted in the Pacific Northwest due to concerns of water and nutrient competition between the cover crop and vines. The last 2 years of a 4-year study started in 2009 are reported here. The study evaluated the use of...
This study focuses on one widespread characteristic of poor soil quality: hydrophobic soil. Previous research has produced conclusive evidence to show that soil hydrophobicity is affected by soil organic matter (SOM) and soil water content (WC). Hydrophobicity that responds to changes in WC is a unique form of surface hydrophobicity...
Water conservation and water quality are rapidly increasing in importance in all areas of the world. The ability to accurately measure soil water content and salinity, over a wide variety of conditions, is key to meeting this need. A set of forward prediction models and waveform interpretation algorithms to extract...
A Langmuir sorption model incorporating a second step of
irreversible absorption was applied to a model soil system. The column
was packed with cellulose triacetate; pulse and step input tests with
3,4-dichlorophenol were performed; the effluent concentration was
measured by electron capture detector gas chromatography and sorption
rate constants were...
The semi-arid dryland wheat-producing areas of the Pacific Northwest are characterized by cool, moist winters and dry, hot summers. The amount of annual precipitation is generally quite variable and inadequate for annual cropping. Where soil depth is adequate, the predominant loessal soils generally supply sufficient moisture for small grain production...