Soil Water Open Access Journals
The soil is essentially the living skin of the Earth and it is of tremendous importance to all people primarily because it is the foundation upon which our whole agricultural system rests. In simple terms, soil consists of the weathered remains of whatever rocks occur naturally within a neighborhood , along side variable amounts of organic material. The weathered material is produced by chemical and physical weathering processes and it is modified by the activities of plants and animals and microorganisms. Most of the chemical weathering that occurs within the soil involves the dissolution of minerals by various acids, mainly carbonic acid formed by carbon dioxide and water. In addition, acids used in weathering are formed by the activities of various micro-organisms living in the soil. These microbes within the soil also play a major role in the growth of plants by breaking down organic and mineral material into forms that are usable by plants. A consequence of all of the processes that occur within the soil is the formation of layers or horizons. Three soil moisture states, saturation, volume unit and permanent wilting point are wont to describe water content across different water potentials in soil and are associated with the energy required to maneuver water (or extract water from soil). When the soil is at or near saturation the direction of the P.E. gradient is downward through the profile or laterally down slope. This mechanism of flow by the force of gravity occurs mainly in macropores. As the soil dries, volume unit is reached after free drainage of macropores has occurred. Field capacity represents the soil water content retained against the force of gravity by matric forces (in micropores and mesopores) at tension of -0.033 MPa.
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