Study of the moisture retention properties of vineyard soils in Castilla-La Mancha region (Spain)

Abstract

In the work described here, the relationship between soil characteristics that influence moisture retention properties (bulk density and percentages of sand, silt, clay, organic matter and calcium carbonate) and gravimetric moisture at Field Capacity (FC), gravimetric moisture at the Permanent Wilting Point (PWP) and Available Water Capacity (AWC) was studied for 101 surface horizons of vineyard soils in the Castilla-La Mancha region (Spain). The soils were described morphologically and the necessary analyzes were carried out to establish the main characteristics of the soils. FC and PWP were determined according to Richards' method (applying -33 kPa and -1500 kPa, respectively). Available Water Capacity was calculated by subtraction (AWC = FC - PWP). From the Principal Component Analysis two components were found that can explain 61.76% of the variability of the original data (sand content and bulk density). The properties that showed a higher significant linear relationship with FC, PWP and AWC were sand content (R= -0.68, -0.68 y -0.47) and silt content (R= 0.5, 0.49 y 0.37) respectively. A GIS tool (Surfer) was used to prepare spatial distribution maps of soil properties.