European Journal of Soil Science最新文献

{"title":"SoilManageR—An R Package for Deriving Soil Management Indicators to Harmonise Agricultural Practice Assessments","authors":"Olivier Heller,&nbsp;Andreas Chervet,&nbsp;Fabien Durand-Maniclas,&nbsp;Thomas Guillaume,&nbsp;Franziska Häfner,&nbsp;Michael Müller,&nbsp;Raphaël Wittwer,&nbsp;Thomas Keller","doi":"10.1111/ejss.70102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.70102","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Understanding the effects of agricultural soil management on the soil system and its functions is crucial to ensure the sustainable use of soil. Due to the countless ways in which soil can be managed, it is not an easy task to compare soil management practices across different locations and over time. One approach to making soil management comparable is the use of numerical soil management indicators. However, due to the lack of standardisation of soil management data and indicators, the comparability of results across studies remains limited. To address these shortcomings, we developed SoilManageR, an accessible R package. The first version of SoilManageR calculates numerical soil management indicators for carbon (C) input, tillage intensity, soil cover duration, nitrogen (N) fertilisation, equivalent livestock units per area, and plant diversity. In this paper, we present the functionality of SoilManageR and demonstrate its capabilities with three case studies. The cases were selected to compare soil management across space, time and context, as well as to relate soil management to soil quality. For this, we calculated soil management indicators for 16 experimental treatments from six agricultural long-term experiments and for 18 farmers' fields in Switzerland. We found that experimental treatments were representative of the management of the farmers' fields in terms of tillage intensity and soil cover, but that farmers' fields tended to exhibit higher livestock integration, leading to higher C and N inputs through organic amendments. We related soil management indicators to selected soil quality indicators in experimental treatments and showed that tillage intensity is the most important management driver of earthworm biomass, whereas C and N inputs were the best predictors of the organic carbon content of the topsoil. Finally, we applied SoilManageR to three sites of the Swiss Soil Monitoring Network and identified significant reductions of N inputs across time in two sites. We demonstrate that SoilManageR is a versatile tool for quantifying multiple aspects of soil management intensity, which can be useful to analyse how policy changes affect soil management. Additionally, SoilManageR can be used to assess soil management impacts on soil quality and provide guidance based on these insights.</p>","PeriodicalId":12043,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Science","volume":"76 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ejss.70102","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143809576","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Characterisation of Analytical Uncertainty in Chamber Soil Flux Measurements","authors":"Nicholas Cowan,&nbsp;Pete Levy,&nbsp;Maddalena Tigli,&nbsp;Galina Toteva,&nbsp;Julia Drewer","doi":"10.1111/ejss.70104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.70104","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Flux chamber methodologies are used at the global scale to measure the exchange of trace gases between terrestrial surfaces (soils) and the atmosphere. These methods evolved as a simplistic necessity to measure gas fluxes from a time when gas analysers were limited in capability and costs were prohibitively high, since which thousands of studies have deployed a wide variety of chamber methodologies to build vast datasets of soil fluxes. However, analytical limitations of the methods are often overlooked and are poorly understood by the flux community, leading to confusion and misreporting of observations in some cases. In recent years, the number of commercial suppliers of gas analysers claiming to be capable of measuring trace gas fluxes from chambers has drastically increased, with a myriad of analysers (and low-cost sensors) now on offer with a wide variety of capabilities. While chamber designs and the capabilities of analysers vary by orders of magnitude, the rudimentary analytical uncertainties of individual flux measurements can still be standardised for direct comparison of methods. This study aims to serve as a guide to calculate the analytical uncertainty of chamber flux methodologies in a standardised way for direct comparisons. We provide comparisons of a variety of chamber measurement methodologies (closed static and dynamic chamber methods) to highlight the impact of analytical noise, chamber size, enclosure time and number of gas samples. With the associated tools, researchers, commercial suppliers and other stakeholders in the flux community can easily estimate the limitations of a particular methodology to establish and tailor the suitability of particular chambers and instruments to experimental requirements.</p>","PeriodicalId":12043,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Science","volume":"76 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ejss.70104","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143818448","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dynamics of Pore Water and Air Distribution in Granite Residual Soil During Drying by X-Ray Computed Tomography","authors":"Tiande Wen,&nbsp;Lifeng Zeng,&nbsp;Yinwei Luo,&nbsp;Lin Gao,&nbsp;Longtan Shao,&nbsp;Xiangsheng Chen","doi":"10.1111/ejss.70101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.70101","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This study investigates the dynamic distribution of pore water and air in granite residual soil (GRS) under varying drying conditions using advanced X-ray computed tomography (CT). The research focuses on microstructural changes during drying, particularly the interaction between pore water and air phases. Results reveal a transition from interconnected pore water networks to isolated water clusters as matric suction increases. Initially, air exists as isolated bubbles within the pore network, but as suction surpasses the air entry value, air pathways become connected, replacing water in the pores. An inverse relationship between pore water and air phases is observed, with increasing air volume and decreasing water content indicating a progressive displacement of water by air. Quantitative analysis shows reduced pore water porosity and increased pore air porosity across different suction levels. These changes modify the pore network structure, leading to decreased relative water permeability and increased relative air permeability, highlighting the critical role of matric suction in governing soil hydraulic behaviour.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":12043,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Science","volume":"76 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143793360","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A New Method to Investigate Denitrification Dynamics During Simulated Floods in Soils","authors":"Rana Kanaan,&nbsp;Romain Darnajoux,&nbsp;Laura Escarmena,&nbsp;Sabine Sauvage,&nbsp;Thierry Camboulive,&nbsp;Jean-Louis Druilhe,&nbsp;José Miguel Sánchez-Pérez","doi":"10.1111/ejss.70098","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.70098","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Riparian ecosystems, through their anoxic properties driven by floods, play a crucial role in favouring denitrification. The absence of nitrous oxide (N₂O) reductase activity in the denitrification process provokes the emission of a potent greenhouse gas (GHG), N₂O, into the atmosphere. Our understanding of the contribution of denitrification to N₂O emissions is limited by the difficulties in capturing peak N₂O events and measuring dinitrogen gas (N₂), the final product of the process under soil flooding. In this study, we describe the GHG-Aquacosme, a new laboratory-based and ecosystem-relevant approach to simulate flood conditions and investigate GHG flux dynamics in intact riparian soil cores, focusing on N₂O. The system capabilities were tested on two different riparian soils with simultaneous monitoring of N₂O, carbon dioxide and porewater chemistry. We also used a simple mass balance approach to estimate the N₂ emissions. The GHG-Aquacosme proved efficient in the incubation of soil samples under atmospheric conditions, preserving the initial soil structure and heterogeneity and providing a high temporal resolution of N₂O emission dynamics upon flooding. This translated into heterogeneous outputs in terms of N₂O dynamics and denitrification-related parameters such as N₂O yield and nitrate removal efficiency. Finally, accounting for nitrogen (N) species diffusion within the system is recommended, and the setup can easily accommodate isotopic N tracer methodologies to investigate other N cycle pathways. Further research is encouraged to determine how the results from the GHG-Aquacosme application can be utilised in predictive models of N₂O emissions, particularly in relation to future scenarios and projections of riparian flooding.</p>","PeriodicalId":12043,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Science","volume":"76 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ejss.70098","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143741099","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Characterisation of Acid Sulfate Soils Along a Temperate Coastal Vegetation Gradient","authors":"M. Wang,&nbsp;I. Cartwright,&nbsp;V. N. L. Wong","doi":"10.1111/ejss.70100","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.70100","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Acid sulfate soils (ASS) pose a significant environmental risk, yet their systematic characterisation is often overlooked in conservation areas, leaving an important gap in understanding their distribution and management. This study characterises ASS in three temperate coastal wetland vegetation communities—mangroves, saltmarshes and paperbark forests—located in southern Australia. Soil samples were collected from two sites, Rhyll and Corner Inlet, representing typical low-energy embayment environments. The study aimed to assess the acidification risk by analysing key soil properties, including pH, electrical conductivity, organic carbon, nitrogen content and the presence of sulfidic materials. Results indicate that mangrove soils exhibited the highest concentrations of chromium reducible sulfur (CRS), while saltmarsh and paperbark forest soils displayed varying levels of acid neutralising capacity (ANC), largely influenced by seawater intrusion and organic matter decomposition. Net acidity was highest in mangrove and deeper saltmarsh layers, indicating a significant potential acidification risk if disturbed. This study highlights the spatial variability in ASS characteristics and acidification risks across different vegetation zones in temperate coastal environments. The findings underscore the need to consider management strategies in conservation areas to mitigate acidification hazards, particularly in light of ongoing sea-level rise and climate change, which may alter the distribution of coastal vegetation and the formation of ASS. These insights provide critical baseline data for the conservation and management of temperate coastal ecosystems in southern Australia.</p>","PeriodicalId":12043,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Science","volume":"76 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ejss.70100","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143741468","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessing Accuracy and Calibration Importance of Tipping Bucket Measurement Boxes for Monitoring Soil Erosion","authors":"Elmar M. Schmaltz,&nbsp;Günther Schmid,&nbsp;Matthias Karner,&nbsp;Lisbeth L. Johannsen,&nbsp;Peter Strauss","doi":"10.1111/ejss.70094","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.70094","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In situ soil erosion monitoring is essential to investigate the effects of soil erosion control measures and to provide effective management strategies to maintain soil health and for future climate change adaptation. However, reliable soil erosion monitoring in the field depends on the accuracy of the installed measurement equipment under a range of environmental conditions. This study evaluated how slot position in a multislot divisor, runoff intensity and soil type affect runoff and sediment measurements of tipping bucket measurement boxes for soil erosion monitoring. A controlled experimental setup simulated runoff events using two different soil types to analyse potential differences in collected runoff, sediment and its textural composition among slot positions. Based on the results, we present a calibration strategy for tipping bucket measurement boxes to adjust for deviations in collected runoff and sediment. The results reveal that tipping stability declines at frequencies over 40 tips per minute, with the central slot collecting up to 4% of water volume, exceeding other slots. Water and sediment collection at the central slot maintained a consistent pattern under 40 tips per minute, while deviations in sand content between collected and parent soils were observed but did not impact overall sediment mass significantly. Calibration functions applied to a measurement plot during a period of natural runoff events under field conditions exhibited underrepresentation of runoff and sediment levels in uncalibrated records. Runoff calibration results in more accurate total erosion estimates, especially crucial for high-frequency runoff events where uncalibrated results overestimated soil loss by up to 13%.</p>","PeriodicalId":12043,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Science","volume":"76 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ejss.70094","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143717188","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Forage vs. Grain Legumes: Contrasting Effects on Soil Organic Carbon Stocks–Evidence From 30 European Field Experiments","authors":"Ioanna S. Panagea,&nbsp;Paul Quataert,&nbsp;María Alonso-Ayuso,&nbsp;Teresa G. Bárcena,&nbsp;Maarten De Boever,&nbsp;Mariangela Diacono,&nbsp;Anna Jacobs,&nbsp;Johannes L. Jensen,&nbsp;Felix Seidel,&nbsp;Daria Seitz,&nbsp;Heide Spiegel,&nbsp;Thijs Vanden Nest,&nbsp;Axel Don,&nbsp;Greet Ruysschaert","doi":"10.1111/ejss.70086","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.70086","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Sustainable land management can play an important role in climate change mitigation by reducing soil organic carbon (SOC) losses or even by sequestering C in soils. This can be achieved through practices that increase C inputs to the soil and/or improve the quality of these inputs, thereby facilitating the removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) and storing it in the soil as SOC. In this study, we investigated the potential of an increased share of legumes in crop rotations to enhance SOC accrual—defined as the increase in SOC stocks at a given land unit compared to the baseline scenario—using data from 30 mid-term (MTEs, 5–20 years) and long-term (LTEs, 20+ years) field experiments across Europe. Our findings indicate that increasing the proportion of forage legumes in rotations (based on 21 experiments and 39 paired comparisons) led to SOC accrual of up to 13.25 Mg ha⁻¹ (0.44 Mg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹), while grain legumes (based on nine experiments and 28 paired comparisons) resulted in a decrease in SOC stocks of up to 14.37 Mg ha⁻¹ (−0.48 Mg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹) compared to the reference treatment. For forage legumes, the largest SOC gains were achieved at sites with the smallest reference SOC stocks and greater share of forage legumes in the rotation. Our observations suggested that the duration of crop growth of the forage legumes (annual vs. perennial) did not exert a significant impact on SOC stock increase, while pedoclimatic zone did. Positive effects on SOC stocks were more pronounced in the Atlantic climatic zone in contrast to the Mediterranean climatic zone. For grain legumes, larger SOC losses were observed with a greater share of grain legumes in the rotation. Overall, integrating forage legumes in cropping systems can enhance their sustainability and present a viable option for climate change mitigation. Finally, we present a regression equation to derive emission factors (EFs) for estimating SOC changes due to the increase of the share of forage legumes in a rotation, and another due to the increase of the share of grain legumes in the rotation. The first can be used to support the assessment of management impacts for the purpose of rewarding carbon farming and the estimation of a national-scale SOC accrual potential, while the second can be used for estimating national-scale SOC losses.</p>","PeriodicalId":12043,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Science","volume":"76 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ejss.70086","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143707275","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Hydraulic Properties and Ripening in Cultivated Acid Sulfate Soil Fields in Northern Europe","authors":"S. Virtanen,&nbsp;H. Laine-Kaulio,&nbsp;H. Salo,&nbsp;J. Nurminen","doi":"10.1111/ejss.70092","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.70092","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Acid sulfate (AS) soils cause severe environmental hazards in their recipient watercourses worldwide. Different soil water management practices can help prevent the hazards. Because long-lasting field experiments are expensive and site specific, sophisticated water flow simulation models can be used, for example, to estimate the effects of different management practices on the soil and runoff water quality. In AS soils, postglacial land uplift and the reclamation of soil for agricultural use have caused ripening of the soil. This study examined soil ripening and its effect on soil hydraulic properties, such as saturated hydraulic conductivity (<i>K</i>_sat), the water retention curve (WRC), macroporosity and air entry values, in different soil horizons of Nordic AS soils. The properties were determined from soil core samples in the laboratory, and single and dual-porosity models were fitted to the measured WRC data. The differences in WRCs at different depths were the result of the different ripening status of the soil horizons. The proportion of macroporosity was found to decrease with depth in the soil, and air entry values were higher in deep horizons than in the upper ripe horizons. According to the determined WRCs, the required soil water potential for the ripening of hypersulfidic parent sediments can be produced by plants only. The dual-porosity van Genuchten model provided a good fit to the measured data; the sensitivity of the model to its parameters varied between study sites due to the differences in underlying WRC measurements. In the long-term simulation of the development of water quality in AS soil areas, the effect of ripening on the evolution of soil hydraulic properties should be taken into account.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":12043,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Science","volume":"76 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143707339","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Single Superphosphate-P Fractions Influence Bacterial Communities in Wheat Rhizosphere Soil Under Microcosm Conditions","authors":"M. Gutiérrez-Martín,&nbsp;R. Baigorri,&nbsp;S. Rubio-Gracia,&nbsp;R. García,&nbsp;S. San Francisco,&nbsp;M. Caballero,&nbsp;S. Atarés","doi":"10.1111/ejss.70096","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.70096","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The water-insoluble phases of phosphate fertilisers have traditionally been considered an agronomic concern because of their phosphorus bioavailability. However, this chemical behaviour with respect to its solubility in soil could be an advantage from the point of view of environmental sustainability, since these phosphates are more stable in soil and less susceptible to blockage by adsorption. Hence, plants could have a long-term bioavailable form of phosphate for their nutrition, which may increase the agronomic performance of the crop. However, these phosphate-based chemical molecules need to be solubilised either by the action of organic compounds exuded by plants or by microorganisms with the capacity to solubilise phosphates. Through the application of phosphorus fractions of different solubilities from single superphosphate (SSP) in soils planted with wheat plants, here we studied plant growth and nutritional content as agronomic response, as well as the influence on the bacterial communities present in the rhizosphere and their potential functionality with 16S rRNA metabarcoding and predictive functional metagenomics (PICRUSt), respectively. Results indicate a direct effect on rhizosphere bacterial communities depending on the nature and solubility of the phosphorus fractions applied. The increase in the amount of bioavailable phosphorus in soil (+1.57 to 2.21 mg·kg⁻¹), together with the increase in bacterial genes related to phosphate solubilisation after the application of slightly soluble or non-soluble forms of phosphate, suggests that the presence of these forms of phosphate may stimulate the activity of phosphate-solubilising microorganisms. However, by comparing rhizosphere soil samples with bulk soil, we observed that plant roots may have a higher impact on edaphic bacterial biodiversity and functionality than the application of different forms of phosphates. Therefore, future studies are needed to elucidate direct actions of phosphate forms on rhizosphere microorganisms, indirect effects caused by plant root exudates and the combined effect of both.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":12043,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Science","volume":"76 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143707276","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Soil Organic Matter and Biochar Effects on Soil Water: Measurements, Pedotransfer Functions and APSIM Simulations","authors":"Deborah Aller,&nbsp;Sotirios Archontoulis,&nbsp;David Laird","doi":"10.1111/ejss.70083","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.70083","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The ability of soils to store and regulate water release to plants is critical for crop production; hence, the ability to estimate soil water parameters is critical. This study aimed to (1) determine biochar effects on the relationship between soil organic matter (SOM) and soil water/physical parameters including field capacity (FC), wilting point (WP), saturation (SAT), water holding capacity (WHC) and bulk density (BD); and (2) evaluate four pedotransfer functions (PTFs) and the APSIM-biochar model for their ability to estimate soil water/physical parameters. Forty-eight deep soil cores were collected from fields with and without biochar applications in Iowa, USA, sectioned into five increments (0–5, 5–15, 15–30, 30–50 and 50–90 cm, <i>n</i> = 226 replicated samples), and analysed for texture, SOM, FC, WP, SAT and BD. For every 1% increase in SOM, the 0–30 cm WHC increased by 5 mm (or 12%). The rate of increase was similar (<i>p</i> = 0.427) for soils with and without biochar, indicating that biochar and biogenic SOM have a similar influence on WHC. Across all data sets, the tested PTFs captured observed data variability, with the Saxton and Rawls PTF having the lowest relative root mean square error (RRMSE). The APSIM-biochar model dynamically simulated changes in soil water parameters and BD response to biochar application with an average RRMSE of 8.3% (uncalibrated) to 6.1% (calibrated). We concluded that the Saxton and Rawls PTF is effective for predicting WHC of soils with and without biochar amendments and that the accuracy of WHC predictions can be improved with location/biochar type-specific calibrations.</p>","PeriodicalId":12043,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Science","volume":"76 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ejss.70083","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143698852","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}