The effect of organic matter applications on the saturated hydraulic conductivity and available water-holding capacity of sandy soils

Abstract

Soils are natural resources that require preservation and good management due to their ever-changing structure. Among the soil management applications, organic material amendments are known to be the most practical soil management methods in the improvement of the chemical and physical properties of soils. Organic matter amendments are used to preserve water in coarse-textured soils and arid region soils. This study was carried out at Bingol University Research laboratory located in eastern Turkey. In the study, different doses of soil organic matter (SOM) including walnut sawdust (WS), earthworm manure (EM) and farmyard manure (FM) were applied to sandy soils to measure their effects on the saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) and available water-holding capacity (AWC) of the soils. Compared with the control application, the SOM amendments decreased the hydraulic conductivity of the sandy soils (p < 0.01). A comparison with the control application showed that the 8% WS application reduced the hydraulic conductivity of the soils by 51%, followed by the FM application with 35% and EM application with 39%. On the other hand, the SOM amendments increased the available water-holding capacity of the soils when compared with the control application (p < 0.01). The application with the most notable effect was determined to be the 1% WS application. © 2019, ALÖKI Kft., Budapest, Hungary.