Effect of soil physical properties on soil infiltration rates

Abstract

The physical properties of the soil are studied to understand the influence of soil properties on infiltration rate. The effect of soil physical properties on infiltration rates on logged-over forests was measured with a mini-disk infiltrometer across various levels of soil disturbances. Results of soil analysis suggest are mostly loamy texture and the bulk density has varied from 0.74 – 1.02 g cm-3, respectively. The basic infiltration rate has varied from a minimum of 0.61 mmhr-1 to a maximum of 45.22 mmhr-1 with an average of 3.81 mmhr-1. The results of simple regression analyses showed that there was little association between the physical properties of the soil and the infiltration rate. This study suggests that the high variation of infiltration rate in this study site is attributed to the high spatial variability of soil properties.