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A Measure of Soil Structure Derived from Water Retention Properties A MEASURE OF SOIL STRUCTURE DERIVED FROM WATER RETENTION PROPERTIES: A KULLBACK-LEIBLER DISTANCE APPROACH by SUNG WON YOON A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Environmental Sciences Written under the direction of Dr. Daniel Giménez And approved by New Brunswick, New Jersey January, 2009 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION A MEASURE OF SOIL STRUCTURE DERIVED FROM WATER RETENTION PROPERTIES: A KULLBACK-LEIBLER DISTANCE APPROACH By SUNG WON YOON Dissertation Director: Dr. Daniel Giménez Water retention curves of structured soils reflect the combined effects of pore systems associated to a given distribution of particle sizes (texture) and those that are the result of rearrangement of soil particles into soil structural units. The main hypothesis of this work was that the entropic distance between structural and textural soil pore systems can be a measure of soil structure. It was also hypothesized that such distance can be derived from water retention curves by assuming that both pore systems follow lognormal distributions and that textural pore systems are the result of random arrangements of particles sizes. The entropic difference between the distributions of the two pore systems considered was derived as a Kullback-Leibler Distance or KLD using an explicit equation that uses the geometric means and standard deviations of pores and particle size distributions derived from water retention data and from information on clay, silt and sand content. Data on water retention and texture obtained for this study was ii supplemented with data from the literature and with data on 1468 soils from the US National Pedon Characterization database. The KLD concept was tested by comparing physically disturbed samples with undisturbed samples over a range of soil structure conditions. Values of KLD from younger soils along two chronosequences, and from compacted and/or degraded soils were smaller than those from older soils and non compacted or degraded soils. Also, KLD values of disturbed samples were lower than those of undisturbed samples. The use of KLD in a large dataset showed that KLD was linearly related to saturated hydraulic conductivity, which is an important hydraulic property. Also, KLD was an important grouping factor in a regression tree analysis for estimation of water content at -33 kPa and in clusters defined from a combination of field and morphological variables. The KLD measure is a promising tool to characterize soil structure. Future studies should consider incorporating KLD into pedotransfer functions or other predictive schemes aimed at improving the estimation of hydraulic properties, which are sensitive to soil structure. iii Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my mentor Dr. Daniel Giménez who supported, challenged, and encouraged me to develop independent thinking and research skills through my graduate career at Rutgers University. This dissertation could not have been written without his guidance and vision. His unwavering faith and confidence in me are what has built me to be the person I am today. I would like to thank my committee members, Professor Pete Strom who always broadens my mind regarding to research and Dr. A.J. Both who gives serious strategies and considerations for the finalization of my Ph.D. program. Especially, I thank Dr. Attila Nemes who served as outside committee member and also offered data set that was main subject in Chapter 4 in my dissertation. His brilliant perspective and valuable comments inspired me deeply throughout working on my dissertation. In addition, I appreciate Dr. Kosugi of Kyoto University, Dr. Tuli of University of California, Riverside, and Dr. Omuto of University of Nioby for offering valuable data set which enabled me to complete this dissertation. I also thank Dr. Tapan K. Nayak of George Washington University for his comments on deriving the explicit form of Kullback Leibler Distance of lognormal density function. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Stephanie Murphy and members of her group at the Rutgers Soil Testing Center whose lab I worked for two years and with whom I forged a special bond, for her kind attention. I extend many thanks to my colleagues and friends, especially Myung Soo's family, Hyen Chung's family, Steve, Jong-Hun, and all my other friends at Rutgers University for offering not only humor and iv entertainment, but also frienship. I would especially thank Ja-Hee for her thoughtful understanding and love. She helped me keep my life in proper perspective and balance. Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank my parents, Seuk Hyun and Kae Ye. Their support and solid love was unquestionably the foothold upon which the past nine years of my study and life in the US have been built. v Table of Contents ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ........................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... vi List of Tables ...................................................................................................................... x List of Figures ................................................................................................................... xii Chapter 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 General Background ......................................................................................... 2 1.2 Hypotheses ........................................................................................................ 5 1.3 Objectives ......................................................................................................... 5 1.4 Dissertation Outline .......................................................................................... 6 Reference ................................................................................................................ 6 Chapter 2 Soil Structure and the Kullback-Leibler Distance Derived from Water Retention Properties ................................................................................................... 13 2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 14 2.2 The Index of Soil Structure ............................................................................. 16 2.2.1 Estimation of Parameters for the Reference size distribution .............. 16 2.2.2 Determining the Entropy and KLD from Water Retention Curves ...... 18 2.3 Applications .................................................................................................... 20 2.3.1 Soil Structural Development over Time ............................................... 21 vi 2.3.2 Plant Roots Effects ............................................................................... 23 2.3.3 Soil Compaction and Degradation ....................................................... 25 2.4 Conclusions ..................................................................................................... 28 References ............................................................................................................. 29 Chapter 3 Using KLD to Assess Soil Structure on Undisturbed and Physically Disturbed Samples from Contrasting Soil Types, Soil Managements, and Depths ................... 46 3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 47 3.2 Materials and Methods .................................................................................... 49 3.2.1 Study Sites ............................................................................................ 49 3.2.2 Soil Properties ...................................................................................... 50 3.2.3 Water Retention Model ........................................................................ 52 3.2.4 Kullback-Leibler Distance (KLD) ........................................................ 53 3.2.5 Statistical Analyses ............................................................................... 53 3.3 Results and Discussion ................................................................................... 53 3.3.1 Soil Properties ...................................................................................... 53 3.3.2 KLD and Soil Structure ........................................................................ 54 3.3.3 KLD and Soil Management and Soil Depth ......................................... 55 3.3.4 KLD and Field Description of Soil Structure ....................................... 56 3.4 Conclusions ..................................................................................................... 58 References ............................................................................................................. 58 vii Chapter 4 Assessing KLD with the US National Pedon Characterization Database ........ 74 4.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 75 4.2. Materials and Methods ..................................................................................
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