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| Titel |
Numerical results on the contribution of an earthworm hole to infiltration |
| VerfasserIn |
Dario Pezzotti, Stefano Barontini, Federico Casali, Mattia Comincini, Marco Peli, Roberto Ranzi, Gabriele Rizzo, Massimo Tomirotti, Paolo Vitale |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2017
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
en
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 19 (2017) |
| Datensatznummer |
250151793
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2017-16552.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| On 9 March 2016 the WormEx I experiment was launched at the experimental site of
Cividate Camuno (274ma.s.l., Oglio river basin, Central Italian Alps), aiming at
contributing to understand how the soil–fauna digging activity affects soil–water
flow. Particularly the experiment investigates the effects of earthworms holes on
the soil–water constitutive laws, in the uppermost layers of a shallow anthropized
soil.
In this framework a set of simulations of the water flow in presence of an earthworm hole
was preliminarily performed. The FV–FD numerical code AdHydra was used to
solve the Richards equation in an axis–symmetric 2D domain around a vertical
earthworm hole. The hole was represented both as a void cylinder and as a virtual porous
domain with typical constitutive laws of a Δ–soil. The hypothesis of Poiseuille flow
and the Jourin–Borelli law applied to determine its conductivity and soil–water
retention relationship. Different scenarios of hole depth and infiltration rate were
explored.
As a result a meaningful change in the downflow condition was observed when burrows
intersect a layered soil, both in saturated and partially unsaturated soils, in case a perched
water table onsets at the interface between an upper and more conductive soil layer and a
lower and less conductive one. These results may contribute to a better understanding of
the streamflow generation processes and soil–water movement in shallow layered
soils. |
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