Soil aggregate geometry: Measurements and morphology

San Jose Martinez, Fernando ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6352-2530, Muñoz Ortega, Francisco Javier, Caniego Monreal, Francisco, Kravchenko, Alexandra and Wang, Wei (2015). Soil aggregate geometry: Measurements and morphology. "Geoderma", v. 237/8 ; pp. 36-48. ISSN 0016-7061. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2014.08.003.

Description

Title: Soil aggregate geometry: Measurements and morphology
Author/s:
Item Type: Article
Título de Revista/Publicación: Geoderma
Date: January 2015
ISSN: 0016-7061
Volume: 237/8
Subjects:
Faculty: E.T.S.I. Agrónomos (UPM) [antigua denominación]
Department: Matemática Aplicada
Creative Commons Licenses: Recognition - No derivative works - Non commercial

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Abstract

Aggregates provide physical microenvironments for microorganisms, the vital actors of soil systems, and thus play a major role as both, an arena and a product of soil carbon stabilization and dynamics. The surface of an aggregate is what enables exchange of the materials and air and water fluxes between aggregate exterior and interior regions. We made use of 3D images from X-ray CT of aggregates and mathematical morphology to provide an exhaustive quantitative description of soil aggregate morphology that includes both intra-aggregate pore space structure and aggregate surface features. First, the evolution of Minkowski functionals (i.e. volume, boundary surface, curvature and connectivity) for successive dilations of the solid part of aggregates was investigated to quantify its 3D geometrical features. Second, the inner pore space was considered as the object of interest. We devised procedures (a) to define the ends of the accessible pores that are connected to the aggregate surface and (b) to separate accessible and inaccessible porosity. Geometrical Minkowski functionals of the intra-aggregate pore space provide the exhaustive characterization of the inner structure of the aggregates. Aggregates collected from two different soil treatments were analyzed to explore the utility of these morphological tools in capturing the impact on their morphology of two different soil managements, i.e. conventional tillage management, and native succession vegetation treatment. The quantitative tools of mathematical morphology distinguished differences in patterns of aggregate structure associated to the different soil managements.

More information

Item ID: 40641
DC Identifier: https://oa.upm.es/40641/
OAI Identifier: oai:oa.upm.es:40641
DOI: 10.1016/j.geoderma.2014.08.003
Official URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S...
Deposited by: Memoria Investigacion
Deposited on: 15 Jun 2016 15:01
Last Modified: 31 Jan 2017 23:30
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