Investigation into the effect of tillage on solute movement to drains through a heavy clay soil. II. Interpretation using a radio-scanning technique, dye-tracing and modelling

A lysimeter experiment showed a decrease in maximum concentrations and total losses of the herbicide isoproturon leached from a heavy clay soil where the topsoil had a finer, deeper tilth than with a standard agricultural tilth. Volumes of leachate for the first flow event of the season were also smaller and leaching of bromide was slower The isoproturon was radiolabelled so that its movement could be assessed using a novel radioscanning technique. Bypass flow began close to the surface as a scan at 8 cm depth showed that only 0.5%, of the total soil area had an activity more than four times the nominal background level. At depths of 10-20 cm, isoproturon was preferentially retained within areas of very fine aggregates. No radioactivity was detected in the scans below 20 cm depth, suggesting little or no retention of isoproturon during transport through the subsoil to the bottom of the lysimeter. Rhodamine-B dye injected to the base of the topsoil (approximately 20 cm depth) was also used to assess flow pathways through the subsoil. The dye spread laterally across the interface between topsoil and subsoil and then penetrated the subsoil through cracks and fissures. Even within cracks, transport of dye frequently occurred through only a very small proportion of the total crack area. The macropore flow model MACRO 4.0 was used to simulate results from the lysimeter experiment. The fourfold decrease in maximum concentrations of herbicide from the finer tilth lysimeter could be predicted by varying only a parameter describing aggregate sizes at depths of 6-24 cm, suggesting that transfer of herbicide between macropore and micropore regions was faster in the finer tilth. Differences in concentrations of bromide could be simulated only by adjusting the soil hydraulic parameters for the fine tilth to reflect a slight decrease in the predominance of bypass flow relative to matrix flow.