The Effect of Heating on Properties of Sandy Soils

Peter Šurda, Ľubomír Lichner (), Massimo Iovino, Slavomír Hološ and Anton Zvala
Additional contact information
Peter Šurda: Institute of Hydrology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská Cesta 9, 84104 Bratislava, Slovakia
Ľubomír Lichner: Institute of Hydrology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská Cesta 9, 84104 Bratislava, Slovakia
Massimo Iovino: Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie Alimentari e Forestali, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Ed. 4 Ingr. E, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Slavomír Hološ: Institute of Hydrology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská Cesta 9, 84104 Bratislava, Slovakia
Anton Zvala: Institute of Hydrology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská Cesta 9, 84104 Bratislava, Slovakia

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-11

Abstract: Although burning grass and crop residues is prohibited in many countries, farmers perceive it as a quick and inexpensive way to eliminate unwanted biomass. The aim of this study was to estimate the impact of heating temperature (simulation of biomass burning) on the studied properties (soil organic carbon (SOC) content, pH(H 2 O), water drop penetration time, WDPT, and contact angle, CA) of acidic sandy soils. Soil samples were taken from the experimental sites S1, S2, and S3 at Studienka village in the Borská nížina lowland (southwestern Slovakia). Experimental site S1 was arable land, experimental site S2 was arable land abandoned for approximately 10 years, and experimental site S3 was arable land abandoned for approximately 30 years with scattered Scots pine ( Pinus sylvestris L.) trees. It was found that all the soil properties studied were strongly affected by heating. A drop in SOC was observed in all the soils for the heating temperature between 20 and 600 °C. Due to the incomplete combustion of SOC, a small (0.1–0.7%) SOC content was recorded even in soils heated to between 600 and 900 °C. An increase in pH(H 2 O) was observed in all the soils for the heating temperature higher than 300 °C. Soil from the experimental site S1 was wettable (WDPT < 5 s) for all of the heating temperatures. WDPT vs. heating temperature relationships for the soils from the experimental sites S2 and S3 were more complex. After a decrease in the heating temperature of 50 °C, an increase in WDPT for the heating temperature between 50 °C and 300 °C (for S3 soil) and 350 °C (for S2 soil) was registered. Finally, the WDPT dramatically dropped to 0 for the heating temperature of 350 °C (for S3 soil) and 400 °C (for S2 soil). CA started to decrease at 300 °C in all the soils and dropped to 0° for all the soils at 800 °C. CA > 0° measured in soils for the heating temperature between 400 and 800 °C, as a consequence of the small SOC contents due to the incomplete combustion of SOC, is a novelty of this study which demonstrates that CA is more sensitive to the changes in subcritical water repellency than WDPT.

Keywords: sandy soil; soil water repellency; soil heating; soil organic carbon; pH; water drop penetration time; contact angle (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/9/1752/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/9/1752/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:9:p:1752-:d:1236119

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().