THE EFFECT OF SOIL TEMPERATURE AND SOIL MOISTURE ON THE SOIL WATER MOVEMENT

Abstract

The current study was conducted to investigate the effect of soil properties,soil temperature,soil moisture and salinity on soil water and salt movements. Fulfilling the purpose of this study required calculatitig some I ' thennal properties i.e. thermal conductivity, volumetric heat capacity and

thermal diffusivity of a loamy sand soil and a clay one at different temperatures and different moisture contents. Soil water movement was studied under two temperature gradients (0.4 °C/cm and 0.8 °C/cm), two initial levels of applied NaCl (salinity), and 4levels of moisture content. The obtained results could by summarized in the following: ! 1- Thermal conductivity increased with increasing soil moisture contents of the studied soils. Although each of the other physical properties was not of significant effect on thermal conductivity; yet these properties together seemed to contribute to determining the

value of this parameter. I