BDV 3007 Soil Science

Instructor: Amirah Alias, PhD

Semester: Sem 1 2021/2022
Time: Thursday 5 pm
Date: 28 Oct 2021 (Week 3)
Announcements

• Assignment #1 uploaded. Due next Thursday, 4 Nov

2021 by 5pm
Topic 3: Physical properties of Soil

• Soil physical properties: soil texture, bulk density,

aggregation, aggregate stability, and soil water
content and water retention.
Topic 3: Physical properties of soil

Learning contents
Soil texture and soil structure
Formation and stabilization of soil
Tillage and structural management
Soil density and pore space
Soil properties for engineering uses
Topic 3: Soil density
• Bulk density, Db
-the mass of a unit volume of
dry soil
-include both solids and pores
-water is excluded
-coring instrument
What if we do not have coring instrument?
• Particle density, Dp
-the mass per unit volume of soil
solids
-the same as specific gravity of solid
substance
-not related to pore space or
structure, rather chemical
composition and crystal structure
Topic 3: Soil density
• Bulk density
-imagine the blocks of solid
rock arranged loosely in a
cylinder
• Particle density
-imagine the same blocks of
solid rock without pore space

Which one is soil compaction indicator?

Topic 3: Bulk density

• Factors affecting bulk density: soil texture, depth in

soil profile, soil management practices

• Bulk density values of Malaysian soils: 0.8 to 1.9

Mg/m3
• Peat soils have much lower bulk density values, as
low as 0.09 Mg/m3 due to organic matter types and
degree of decomposition.
Topic 3: Bulk density of variety of soils and soil materials

Higher bulk density

-compaction
-tight arrangement
-lower porosity
Topic 3: Bulk density
• Management practices affecting bulk density
-forest land – low bulk density but may increase. How?
-urban soils – high rise building, landscaping
-green roofs – lower mass to minimize soil load
-agricultural land – tillage to loosen, but may increase. How?

Same vehicle load

Bulk density Soil capacity to take in water

Topic 3: Bulk density

• Bulk density influences soil strength and root growth

• Soil strength is affected by both soil water content
and bulk density

Penetrometer: to measure soil strength

i.e force needed to push pointed rod
into the soil
Topic 3: Pore space

• Pore space: the lower the bulk density, the higher

the percent pore space (total porosity)
• How to calculate % pore space?

• Factors influencing total pore space:

- Size of pores (macro- and micro-)
- Cultivation and pore size
5-min break and attendance

https://forms.gle/B9vxjv6vtjB2CeWi7
Topic 3: Soil water content and water retention

• Soil water content: 1) saturation, 2) field capacity,

and 3) permanent wilting point.
• Saturation: the point of maximum amount of water
that a soil can hold below gravity
• Field capacity: point where gravity will be able to
pull away the water from the soil.
• Permanent wilting point: water is held too strongly
by the soil that plant roots cannot obtain water.

Available water content: the amount of soil water between field

capacity and permanent wilting point
Topic 3: Soil water content and water retention

• Malaysian soils:
- Available volumetric soil water content= 1-13%
- Saturation = 36%–89%,
soil management practices
- Field capacity = 10%–67%
- Permanent wilting point = 3%–49% - by soil texture
Topic 3: Soil water content

Plants will start to be water stressed at soil water content below the critical
point. C4 plants are less sensitive than C3 plants to water stress.
Topic 3: Soil water content

• The soil’s critical point, Θv,cr (m3/m3) can be

determined by,

where p is 0.5 and 0.3 for C3 and C4 plants, respectively.

Topic 3: C3 and C4 plants

1. Cereals 1. Corns
2. Sunflower 2. Sugarcane
3. Soybean
4. Rice
5. potatoes

• Rubisco aims to fix CO2, but can also fix O2 molecules, which creates a toxic two-
carbon compound. Rubisco fixes O2 ~ 20 %
• In C3 plants, when stomata are open to let CO2 in, they also let water vapor out,
leaving C3 plants at a disadvantage in drought and high-temperature
environments.

Additional readings: https://ripe.illinois.edu/blog/difference-between-c3-and-c4-plants

Topic 3: Soil water content

• The relative soil water content (RWC; m3/m3) is calculated

by

where:
- Θv is the volumetric soil water content (m3/m3)
- Θv,sat and Θv,pwp are the volumetric soil water contents at
saturation and permanent wilting point, respectively (m3/m3)
End of lecture