Responses of soil water percolation to dynamic interactions among rainfall, antecedent moisture and season in a forest site

• Published in: Journal of hydrology (Amsterdam) 2016-09, Vol.540, p.565-573
• Main Authors: Lai, Xiaoming, Liao, Kaihua, Feng, Huihui, Zhu, Qing
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antecedent moisture; Computer simulation; Deep percolation; Dynamics; Freshwater; Hydrus-1D; Interactive effect; Mathematical models; Moisture; Percolation; Rainfall; Seasons; Soil (material)
• ISSN: 0022-1694; 1879-2707
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.06.038

•The DP fluxes increased as the initial condition became wetter.•Antecedent moisture had the greatest impact on DP, followed by rainfall and season.•As antecedent moisture increasing, influence of season on DP increased.•The TDC influenced DP by affecting the responses of DP to other factors.•The DP of TDC_B (rainfall intensity linearly increased with time) was the lowest. Knowledge of soil water percolation below the rooting zone and its responses to the dynamic interactions of different factors are important for the control of non-point source pollution. Based on 3600 scenarios in Hydrus-1D simulation, this study revealed the integrated effects of rainfall characteristics (rainfall amount, maximum rainfall intensity or MRI, time distribution characteristics of rainfall or TDC), antecedent moisture and the season on deep percolation (DP) at a forest site in Taihu Lake Basin, China. Results showed that Hydrus-1D model can well simulate the soil water dynamics at this site. Antecedent moisture had the greatest relative contribution to DP (85.7%), followed by rainfall amount (10.9%) and MRI (3.4%). As the antecedent moisture increased, the relative contribution of the season on DP increased from 0.0% to 16.4%. In comparison, that of MRI decreased from 58.7% to 38.5% and that of rainfall amount followed a bell shape pattern (greatest when the antecedent moisture was 0.26m3m−3). The relative contribution of antecedent moisture to DP in summer was the greatest (87.8%), while that of the rainfall was the least. The TDC influenced DP by affecting the responses of DP to other factors. When the rainfall amount was ⩾80mm and the antecedent moisture content was ⩾0.34m3m−3, effect of TDC on DP could be observed. The DP of TDC_B (rainfall intensity linearly increased with time) was the lowest, while that of TDC_E (rainfall intensity kept constant with time) was the greatest. Findings of this study have practical significance for investigating the water and pollutant transport in vadose zone.