HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, VOL.

10, 89-103 (1996)

SPATIAL VARIABILITY OF SOIL WdTER CONTENT IN THE

COVERED CATCHMENT AT GARDSJON, SWEDEN
LARS NYBERG
Institute of Earth Sciences, Department of Hydrology, Uppsala University, V &atan 24, S-753 09 Uppsala, Sweden

ABSTRACT
The spatial variability of soil water content was investigated for a 6300m’ covered catchment on the Swedish west
coast. The catchment podzol soil is developed in a sandy-silty till with a mean depth of 43cm and the dominant
vegetation is Norway spruce. The acid precipitation is removed by a plastic roof and replaced with lake water irrigated
under the tree canopies. On two occasions, in April and May 1993, TDR measurements were made at 57-73 points in
the catchment using 15 and 30cm long vertically installed probes. The water content pattern at the two dates, which
occurred during a relatively dry period, were similar. The range of water content was large, from 5 to 60%. In May
1993 measurements also were made in areas of 10 x 10m, 1 x 1 m and 0.2 x 0.2m. The range and standard deviation
for the 10 x 10m area, which apart from a small-scalevariability in soil hydraulic properties and fine root distribution
also had a heterogenenous micro- and macro-topography, was similar to the range and standard deviation for the
catchment. The 1 x 1 m and 0.2 x 0.2m areas had considerably lower variability. Semi-variogrammodels for the water
content had a range of influence of about 20 m. If data were paired in the east-west direction the semi-variance reflected
the topography of the central valley and had a maximum for data pairs with internal distances of 20-40m. The corre-
lation between soil water content and topographic index, especially when averaged for the eight topographically homo-
geneous subareas, indicated the macro-topography as the cause of a large part of the water content variability.

KEY WORDS: soil water content; covered catchment; spatial variability; Sweden

INTRODUCTION
The soil water content in a specific soil layer in a forest area is dependent on several factors. The input of
water by throughfall commonly has a heterogeneous areal distribution (Bouten et al., 1992). Infiltration
and unsaturated flow are affected by the spatial variability of soil hydraulic properties such as saturated
hydraulic conductivity and specific water capacity (Russo and Bresler, 1981; Unlii et al., 1990). The loca-
tion in the catchment and the slope of the ground surface are key factors in describing the accumulation
and drainage of water in soils (e.g. Henninger et al., 1976). Zaslavsky and Sinai (1981) found in Israeli
studies an accumulation of soil water in concave areas even if there was no local water-table, which was
explained with the occurrence of unsaturated lateral flow. Schuh et al. (1993) found that drainage through
the unsaturated zone in a flat area was more affected by small differences in ground surface elevation, the
micro-topography, than by variations in soil hydraulic properties. The main sinks for soil water are perco-
lation to the saturated zone during the winter season and evapotranspiration during the summer season.
Hawley et al. (1983) surveyed these and other factors that influence the soil water content.
The lateral variability of soil water content was studied by Hills and Reynolds (1969). They used gravi-
metric measurements in areas of various sizes, from 0.02m2 to 6km2, and stated that ‘it must not be
assumed that by reducing the size of the area, the magnitude of variability can also be reduced’. Price
and Bauer (1984) used a neutron probe at a Canadian site with deciduous forest and sandy soil and
measured large differences in the soil water content between access tubes only a few metres apart. They
interpreted this as an effect of textural heterogeneity. Nord6n (1989) found no relationship at two
CCC 0885-6087/96/OlOOS9-15 Received 31 May 1994
0 1996 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Accepted 31 October 1994
90 L. NYBERG

Figure 1. Topographic map of the covered catchment, with eight subareas. The valley is about 100 m long and 65 m across. The range
in altitude is ca 20m. Locations of the 10 x 10m square (bold line) and long-term TDR profiles are marked

Swedish sites between increasing soil water tension, as an indicator of root uptake, and the distances to
the surrounding trees. Even within a smaller area the variability of water content is large, and field studies
are needed to examine how to extrapolate point measurements to values representative for grid cells in
distributed flow models. The measuring technique must, as expressed by Bathurst and O’Connell (1992),
‘correspond to the structure and scale of the model’.
The introduction of the TDR technique in the late 1970s facilitated the measurement of soil water
content and made new measuring programmes possible, often more dense in both time and space than
earlier studies. Topp et al. (1980) presented an empirical function to evaluate the soil water content
from the measurements of dielectric permittivity. The function, which was established for a group of soils
with a maximum soil water content of 55%, was for several years considered as universal. Herkelrath et af.
(1991) established a calibration graph for soil with a high organic content and a soil water content as high
as 80%. Roth et a!. (1990) used a three-component model which requires an estimate of the porosity and
the dielectrical permittivities for water and mineral/organic matter. The sensitivity of the TDR probe to the
surrounding soil water is largely concentrated within a distance of a few centimetres from the probe
(Knight, 1992). An overview of the TDR technique and methods for evaluating the water content can
be found in Dalton and van Genuchten (1986), Dasberg and Hopmans (1992) and Heimovaara (1993).
A deacidification experiment was started in 1989 at Girdsjon, Sweden, where a plastic roof was built
over a micro-catchment (Hultberg et al., 1993). The acid throughfall is replaced with less acid lake water,
irrigated under the tree canopies. To support the interpretations of various hydrochemical processes, a
hydrological research programme has been undertaken (Nyberg et al., 1993), where water flow paths
and residence times are studied.
The main objective for this paper was to describe the lateral variability of soil water content at different
spatial scales. Catchment-wide mappings of soil water content were made with TDR 011two occasions in
April and May 1993. In May measurements were also made in squares of 10 x IOm, 1 x 1m and
0.2 x 0.2 m. The water content was determined for the soil layers between 0 and 15 cm depth, as well as
between 0 and 30cm depth. The three-component mixing model (Roth et al., 1990) was used for estimating
the water content from the TDR measurements. The results were analysed with both traditional statistics
and geostatistics.
To determine which hydrological properties were important for the water content pattern during a rela-
tively dry period, small- and large-scale effects of lateral variability in topography, soil hydraulic properties,
soil depth, water input and fine root distribution were investigated. The relationship between soil water
 SPATIAL VARIABILITY OF SOIL WATER 91

content and different topographic indices was of special interest to see if a relatively simple index could
explain the spatial variability in water content.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Site description
The covered catchment (5XG04'N,12"Ol'E) is situated in the GArdsjon area near the Swedish west coast.
The 6300m' catchment has a central valley and steep sideslopes (Figure 1). The altitude varies from 123 to
143m as1 (Figure 1). Norway spruce (80-100 years old) is the dominant vegetation. More than two-thirds
of the fine roots grow in the humus layer (Clemensson-Lindell and Persson, 1995). The lateral distribution
of fine roots is random and does not show a higher density close to the trees. The locally measured value of
mean annual precipitation in the area is ca. 1100mm and the mean runoff is ca. 600 mm. The flatter parts in
the upper and lower ends of the central valley have a groundwater zone in the loose soil cover throughout
the year. In other parts of the catchment there is groundwater in the loose soil cover in conjunction with
larger rain/irrigation events. There is usually runoff from the catchment, except for several months during
the summer season.
The catchment in the study area is covered with a transparent plastic roof, placed under the tree canopies.
Natural rain is led outside the catchment and new water with an adjusted chemistry is irrigated beneath the
roof. The building of the roof over the catchment was finished in March 1991, and thereafter the irriga-
tion has been manually managed to simulate the natural throughfall, though at a constant rate of 3 mm h-' .

Scale: [ 1
50 m

Figure 2. Thicknesses of the soil layer and soil horizons in the eight subareas. From Nyberg (in press)
92 L. NYBERG

Aria (m2)
Imo
0
0 am 3m) 4an'5ooo 60a)
- 7000

-m
- -40

i -;:
€ 4

-120
-140
-160

Figure 3. Soil depth distribution, presented as the area of the soil cover at various soil depths

The water is sprinkled out horizontally from about 40cm above the ground, and the irrigation system is
designed to give a homogeneous water input.
The podzol soil has developed on a shallow sandy-silty till and the bedrock is of gneissic granodiorite
(Melkerud, 1983). The mean clay content is less than 10%. The average soil depth is 43cm. Nyberg (in
press) estimated the soil depth and the thicknesses of the humus layer, Ae and B horizons in eight subareas
(Figure 2), as well as the distribution of soil depth (Figure 3). Nyberg (in press) described the hydraulic
properties of the soil based on sampling in four profiles, of which three profiles were located adjacent to
the 10 x 10m squares (Figure 1) that were intensely measured in this experiment. High porosities found
in the mineral soil were correlated with the amount of organic content. The organic content was also cor-
related with the field capacity and with the water content at the wilting point. This gave a water retention
that was greatest in the B horizon (Figure 4), where the maximum organic content in the mineral soil was
found. The range for the water content at pF3 (which roughly corresponds to the conditions during the
experiment) in the humus layer was between 0.10 and 0.27 m3 mP3; the range in the Ae horizon was be-
tween 0.25 and 0.33 m3 mW3;and the range in the B horizon was between 0.27 and 0.50 m3 m-3. The stan-
dard deviation was 0.07m3m-3 for the humus layer, 0.03 m3 m-3 for the Ae horizon and 0.06m3m-3 for
the B horizon.
Based on ground surface elevation data in a grid net with 5 m grid size, four different topographic
indices were calculated: elevation, slope, In(A) (where A is the upslope area draining through a grid cell),
and In(a/tan/?). The terms in In(a/tanp) are a(m2m-'), which is the area draining through each
unit length across the grid cell, and p(mm-'), which is the slope of the grid cell (Quinn et al., 1991).
In[a/tan /?I is normally used with the semi-distributed model of runoff generation, TOPMODEL (Beven
and Kirkby, 1979).

Watw contont
0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.w

Porosity

pF1.3

PF2

pF3
pF4.2
-1O0 1
Figure 4. Mean soil water retention for the soil horizons in the covered catchment. From Nyberg (in press)
 SPATIAL VARIABILITY OF SOIL WATER 93

TDR measurements
The equipment used for TDR measurements was a Tektronix 1502 cable tester. Two-wire probes,
made of steel wire with a diameter of 3 mm, were connected to the cable tested with a 300 0 unshielded
cable via a pulse transformer (Anzac TP103). The distance between the wires was 35mm. The 15 and
30 cm long probes were installed vertically from the ground surface. After the measurements, the probes
were removed. Measurements and evaluation of the TDR traces were performed manually.
Validation of the soil water content measured with TDR was made against the soil water content in
cylinder samples measured gravimetrically. The samples were taken in two of the long-term TDR pro-
files, T2 and T3 (Figure l), when the measurements in those profiles were terminated. The cylinders
were 5 cm long and had a diameter of 7 cm. The soil samples were weighed before and after they had
been dried at 105°C for 24 h. Comparisons were made with the soil water content measured by horizontal
probes (only in T2) and vertical probes installed at the time of the cylinder sampling.
Mappings of the soil water content in the entire catchment were made on 23 April and 19 May 1993.
Measurements were made at 60 evenly spread node points on a pre-existing grid net. At some places bed-
rock or large stones made the probe installation impossible. This occurred most often between 15 and 30 cm
depth in subareas 3, 4, 7 and 8. Installations were made at the same places (within ldm) on the two
measurement occasions. About 18 extra measurements were made between the grid nodes in a non-regular
way. On 20 May, mappings were also made in squares of 10 x 10m, 1 x 1 m and 0.2 x 0.2 m (Figure 1). The
0.2 x 0.2m square was located inside the 1 x 1m square, which was located inside the 10 x 10m square.
The 10 x 10m square included several trees and large stones and the ground slope varied within the
area. The total number of installation points on each data and at each scale are presented in Table 11.
To see the variation of soil water content at greater depths, measurements were made on 30cm long
horizontally installed probes in four long-term profiles (Figure 1). The depth of the long-term profiles
ranged from 32 to 82cm.
Because of the high porosities in the covered catchment, the three-component mixing models proposed
by Roth et al. (1990) was used to estimate the soil water content

where E , is the composite dielectric permittivity for the total system (which is measured with the cable tes-
ter), 6, is the dielectric permittivity of the aqueous phase, E , is the dielectric permittivity of the solid phase
and is the dielectric permittivity of the gaseous phase. q is the porosity of the soil, 0 is the actual
volumetric water content (m3m-3) and Q is an empirical coefficient. To estimate the value of 0,a calibra-
tion versus gravimetric measurements of soil water content is needed. Roth et al. (1990) determined a to be
0.46, and Alharthi and Lange (1987) used a value for Q of 0-5. In this study Q was taken to be 0.5.
TDR measurements in the layered media were treated as proposed by Topp et af. (1982). As the humus
layer, the Ae horizon and the upper part of the B horizon have different thicknesses, porosities and dielec-
tric permittivities of the solid phase, E , is determined according to Equation (2) when the probes are inserted
vertically.

LH is the thickness of the humus layer, LA^ is the thickness of the Ae horizon and LB is the thickness of the
B horizon through which the probe is inserted. In this study the mean horizon thicknesses within each
subarea (Figure 2) was used as values of L H ,LAe and Lg. Ltot is the sum of L H , LA^ and L B .E ~ ( is~ the
)
composite dielectric permittivity for the humus layer, C C ( A ~ is
) the corresponding value for the Ae horizon
and E ~ ( B the
) value for the B horizon.
94 L. NYBERG

Table I. Values of dielectric permittivity

for the solid phase and porosity in the
humus layer, the Ae horizon and the
upper part of the B horizon
cs* Porosity?
Humus layer 5 0.93
Ae horizon 3.9 0.65
B horizon (upper) 3.9 0.75

* FromRoth et al. (1990)

From Nyberg (in press)

Combining Equations (1) and (2) gives the soil water content 8 [Equation (3)]
[€:I2 - € y 2 ( qH LH/Ltot -k qAeLAe/Ltot f qBLBILtot)

q H is the porosity in the humus layer, qAe is the porosity in the Ae horizon and q B is the porosity in the
B horizon. Values of cS and q for the horizons used in this study are shown in Table I. E , is 1.0. cw,
the dielectric permittivity for water, is dependent on the water temperature (Weast, 1986).
The soil water content at 15-30 cm depth was calculated with Equation (4)
815-30cm = 2e0-30cm - 80-15cm (4)
Measurement errors were mainly caused by the manual evaluation of the TDR traces and this was
estimated to give a maximum uncertainty for a single measured value of about 0.02m3 m-3. In addition,
uncertainties of q , and
~ L for the horizons gave uncertainties in the water content of less than 0.02m3m-3.

Statistics
Geostatistics was used to investigate the spatial correlation of soil water content and of ln(a/tan p).
Semi-variogram models were fitted to the experimental variograms. Of special interest was the range of
influence, which is the internal distance between paired data points at which the semi-variance reaches a
constant level (the sill). Beyond that range the model cannot be used to add information on the spatial
relationships. The validity of the semi-variogram models was tested with cross-validation, which implies
that each of the measured values was compared with a kriged value at the same point.
The Spearman rank correlation was calculated between soil water content at the catchment scale and
other properties, such as the different topographic indices, thickness of the humus layer and distance to
the nearest tree. Rank correlation was preferred as some of the topographic indices were clearly not
normally distributed.
Weather during experiments
The air temperature during the study period, represented by data from the SMHI station at Landvetter
50 km SSE of Girdsjon, was higher than that which is normal for the season. The mean temperature
between 23 April and 19 May was 14.0"C compared with the long-term monthly mean temperature of
4~6°Cin April and 10.5"C in May. No irrigation was made during March. On 5 April 5.7mm was
irrigated, and a further 11.3 mm was irrigated on 20 April. During the experimental period 12.2mm was
irrigated on 10 May and 8.2mm on 11 May. On 23 April the runoff was 1 1 s-' km-', which was also
the maximum runoff between the two mappings. On 19 May no runoff occurred. The accumulated runoff
for the experimental period was 0.6 mm. On 23 April the groundwater level was 20-30 cm below the ground
 SPATIAL VARIABILITY OF SOIL WATER 95

(a) Water contont

0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50 0.60 0.70

Grov Jminerol
-
E -30
-20
Grov/humus
2 8. a x TDR lhorhontol
a x a
-l D R lverticol
a X .

-80
a s
. .X

Water content
(b)
0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50 0.a
01 ,

-10 + I I. -I 1 Grov /mineral

GravJhumus

-TDR /vertical

..
Figure 5. Soil water content measured with the gravimetric method and TDR on 15 September 1993 in profile T2 (a) and profile T3 (b)

surface in the subarea 2 and 35 cm below the ground surface in subarea 6. On 19 May the groundwater level
was 50-70 cm below the ground surface in subarea 2 and 45 cm below the ground surface in subarea 6. On
the steep catchment sides (subareas 3 , 4 , 7 and 8) and in the steep part of the valley (subarea 5) no ground-
water was found in the loose soil layer on the two dates.

RESULTS
In the validation procedure, the gravimetrically determined water content showed a wide spread, even
for samples taken next to each other at the same depth (Figure 5). The duplicate vertical measurements

Figure 6 . Histogram of soil water content at O-15cm depth on 23 April and 19 May 1993
Table 11. Soil water content in the roof catchment at Girdsjon at different scales. Measured values at 0-30 and 0&15cm,and calculated values for 15-30cm

Scale Date 0-30 cm 0-15cm 15-30 cm

Mean SD Min. Max. n Mean SD Min. Max. n Mean SD Min. Max. n r

~ ~

2
Catchment 23 April 0.350 0.109 0.097 0.595 63 0.311 0.104 0.076 0.551 68 0.387 0.132 0.090 0,754 63 2
Catchment 19 May 0.273 0.098 0.117 0.502 57 0.217 0.093 0.046 0.482 73 0.319 0.125 0.068 0.671 57 m
Catchment Difference 0.082 0.044 -0.025 0.203 56 0.093 0.053 -0.028 0.250 67 0.076 0.087 -0.142 0.303 56
23 April-19 May
l o x 10m 20May 0.209 0.076 0.031 0.448 36
lxlm 20 May 0.229 0.024 0.178 0.277 32 0.223 0.032 0.151 0.288 35 0.235 0.043 0.132 0.323 32
0.2 x 0.2m 20 May 0.224 0.021 0.178 0.265 20
 SPATLAL VARIABlLITY OF SOIL WATER 97

for samples taken next to each other at the same depth (Figure 5). The duplicate vertical measurements
with each probe length at each profile, made within a distance of less than lOcm, had differences in water
content of 2-8%. We could not see any systematic under- or overestimation of the water content measured
by TDR.
The soil water contents on each date and scale were approximately normally distributed (Figure 6), from
which follows that the difference in water content between the April and May mappings for all measuring

April 23rd 0-15 cm April 23rd 15-30 cm

* 0.10

im 0-15 cm W y l s t h 15-30cm

' 0.00
. 0.00

Figure 7. Soil water content at 0-15 and 15-30cm depth on 23 April and 19 May 1993, and the water content difference between the dates
98 L. NYBERG

0' I

-10-- 4 8 ;

-E
-20.-
-30--
0.
m
0
23 April

19May
&! m

fp 0 . -23 April
B 0 . ......- 19 May
-60 -- 0 .

-70-- 0 .

-80 A

Figure 8. Soil water content versus depth on 23 April and 19 May 1993 in profile T2. Measurements were made on long-term
horizontal probes (squares) and on temporary vertical probes (lines)

points also had a normal distribution. Basic statistics about the soil water content at different scales and
on the two sampling occasions were calculated (Table 11). In these statistics the data set which included the
non-regular measuring points was used, as the larger data set had similar statistical properties to the smaller
data set with regularly distributed measuring points.
The range of water contents on each sampling occasion was large. For example, the water content at
0-30cm depth varied from 10 to 60% on 23 April. The range decreased to between 12 and 50% on the
May sampling occasion (Table 11, Figure 7). The range for the values of the 10 x 10m investigation
area was similar to the range of water content for the whole catchment. The ranges of water content
in the 1 x 1 m and 0.2 x 0.2 m areas were lower. The standard deviations of the water content for the
0-15cm layer decreased with the size of the sampling area, from 9.3% for the whole catchment to 2.2%
for the 0.2 x 0.2m area. The standard deviation decreased most between the 10 and 1 m scales.
During the 26 day period between the two catchment-wide mappings, the mean volumetric water content
in the 0- 15 cm deep soil layer decreased by 9 vol.% from 3 1 to 22%. This corresponds to a water volume of
14 mm. The eight subareas decreased by between 8 and 12 vol.% at 0- I 5 cm depth. The water content in the
15-30cm deep soil layer decreased by about 8 vol.%, or 11 mm. In the four permanent profiles, the decrease
in water content at different levels below 30cm depth was 1-12vol.% (Figure 8).
Soil water contents as the regular and non-regular measuring points were used to construct semi-
variograms. The structure of the variogram for the 0-15cm layer followed a spherical model (Clark,
1979) well, with a range of influence of about 20m (Figure 9a). The variogram for all data points was
similar to the variogram resulting from pairs in the north-south direction. The pairs in the east-west direc-
tion were influenced by the valley topography and showed a pattern with a maximum semi-variance for
data pairs with 20-40 m internal distance (Figure 9b), whereafter the semi-variance decreased continuously
towards zero for pairs with more than 40 m internal distance. The decrease was not an effect of too few data
pairs. The range was about the same for the north-south and east-west directions. The variograms for
ln(a/tan/?) showed a pattern similar to that for the water content (Figure 9c). In the variogram for the
water content in the 10 x 10m area, the range was not reached (Figure 9d). For the 0-30cm deep layer
the data points within the range of influence were too few to be able to adjust a model to the variogram.
This was also true for the water content at 15-30cm depth, as well as for the water content difference
between the two mappings, which had a constant semi-variance even for pairs with a short internal
distance. Cross-validation of the models generally resulted in similar mean values for measured and kriged
data. The standard deviation was about 25% lower for the kriged data, which was too large to enable use
of the models for kriging.

Figure9. Semi-variogram for the waler content at (a) 0-15cm depth on 23 April 1993 for all data pairs, (b) 0--15cm depth on 23 April
1993 for data pairs in the east-west direction (k45" tolerance), (c) the topographic index In(cr/tan 0)in the east-west direction (545"
tolerance) and (d) for water content 0-15cm depth in the 10 x 10m area on 20 May 1993
 SPATIAL VARIABILITY OF SOIL WATER 99

.
0.015 -.

8e 0.01 --

I f
0.005 -. 4
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Distance (m)

0.02 -
T

. .
--
0.015

t
0.m
0'01 1/' . ..
..

.. .
.

0.015 .
0
?
0.01
. ..
. . .=
0 I
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Dbtance (m)

Figure 9
100 L. NYBERG

0
0
0

4 0 Point

Subarea

0.00 J I
3 5 7 9 11
hpographk 1nd.x

(b) 0.60
0
0 0
0.50
0

0 Point

I o O B O Suborea

1
0 o o

0.10 0

o'20 O
0.00 4 I
3 5 7 9 11
Topoaraphk indox

Figure 10. Soil water content versus In(a/tanp) (topographic index) for single points and averaged for subareas on 23 April 1993 at
depths of 0-15cm (a) and 0-30cm (b)

There was no significant correlation (at a significance level of 0.10) between the water content at single
points and the distance to the nearest tree or to the thickness of the humus layer. There were signifi-
cant correlations between water content and ln(a/tan p), ln(A), elevation and slope. The Spearman corre-
lation coefficient varied between 0.58 and 0.65 for the correlation between ln(a/tanp) and the water con-
tent on the two sampling occasions for the 0- 15 and 0-30 cm soil layers. The water contents were averaged
for each subarea and plotted versus the geometric mean of ln(a/tanP) for the subarea (the ln(a/tanp)
distribution was close to the log-normal) (Figure 10). Because of too few points, no correlation coefficient
was calculated here. There was no significant correlation between ln(a/tanp) and the difference in water
content for the two mappings. The index ln(A) was about as well correlated with the water content as
ln(u/tanp) and had correlation coefficients between 0.58 and 0.65. Elevation and water content had
correlation coefficients between -0.40 and -0.45. The mean slope ranged between 0.05m3 m-3 for subareas
2 and 6 and 0.5m3mP3 for subarea 3. Slope and water content had correlation coefficients between -0.39
and -0.45.
The soil depth had a positive covariation with ln(a/ tan P ) , so the soil cover was shallow on the sideslopes
which had a low topographic index, and was thicker in the valley where the topographic index was high.
The relationship between mean soil depth and mean ln(a/tanp) tended to be linear except for subareas
1 and 6 . In these two subareas ln(a/tanp) was higher than expected from a linear relation to soil depth,
which was reflected in a higher mean water content than in other areas with similar soil depth.
 SPATIAL VARIABILITY OF SOIL WATER 101

DISCUSSION
The TDR technique turned out to be suitable for the investigation of spatial variability of soil water content
in the upper soil layers. The installation of vertical probes, even at numerous places, entailed a negligible
disturbance of the catchment. If the aim of the investigation is to explore the temporal variations at specific
locations, the TDR probes should be permanently installed.
The gravimetric measurements in the TDR validation procedure indicated the large variability in soil
conditions, as found previously in the catchment (Nyberg, in press). Two cylinder samples
taken next to each other could have a difference in volumetric water content of more than 10 percentage
points. The cylinders used for sampling had a diameter comparable with the range of sensitivity for the
TDR probes. The 5cm length of the cylinders, however, was shorter than the column measured by
the TDR probes. Cylinder sampling at exactly the same place as where the probes were inserted was made
difficult by stones at several levels. The validation, however, did not suggest that the three-component
mixing model and the a value of 0.5 should be rejected, as the TDR values at most places were within
the range of the gravimetrically measured values.
The following discussion aims to describe the hydrological processes that influence the water content in a
soil volume measured by the TDR probes. The water stored in an elementary soil volume is one part of
a water balance for the volume. Water is added to the soil volume by infiltration from the ground surface.
In this instance the water is supplied from a sprinkling system. Laterally flowing water drained from
upslope areas may act as input to the soil volume, and also as output from the soil volume as downslope
flow. The lateral flow can be either saturated or unsaturated and the spatial distribution of the lateral
flow is to a large extent determined by different topographical factors (e.g. Anderson and Burt, 1978;
O’Loughlin, 1981). Although unsaturated flow is commonly thought to be directed vertically, published
examples were found where unsaturated flow vectors had both vertical and lateral components (e.g.
Harr, 1977; Johansson, 1985). The soil volume may also loose water through evapotranspiration, which
is a significant sink during the growing season.
As the artificial precipitation in the covered catchment is distributed with sprinklers below the canopies,
the input of water to the catchment is more spatially homogeneous than if throughfall had been water
input. This, together with the small amount of irrigation before the April mapping and between the April
and May mappings, implied that the input of water as a source of variability in soil water content
was neglected.
The role of topography in the spatial variability of water content was seen from the measurements
of water content at different scales. The TDR measurements at 0-15cm depth in the 1 x 1 m and
0.2 x 0.2 m scales had standard deviations of 0.02-0.03 m3 mP3, at a place where the micro- and macro-
topography were homogeneous. The likely explanation of the spatial variability in water content for those
areas was measurement errors and the small-scale variability in soil properties found, for example, from the
gravimetric measurements in the TDR validation procedure. The influence of the random distribution of
fine roots on the water content variability was not possible to estimate here. At the 10 x 10m scale, the
addition of micro- and macro-topography as sources of spatial variability in water content resulted in a
standard deviation and a range of values that were almost as large as those found at the catchment scale.
The correlations between water content and the index ln(A) and between water content and the index
ln(a/ tan p ) indicated that macro-topography was a major contributor to the variability in water con-
tent. When the water content was averaged for the previously delimited topographically homogeneous
subareas, the relationship between topography and water content was even clearer, because the variability
caused by soil hydraulic properties, fine root distribution, micro-topography and measurement errors was
reduced. The fact that ln(A) and ln(a/tanP) were similarly well correlated with the water content, together
with the fact that the slope p was badly correlated with the water content, implies that the size of the drain-
ing area (a, A ) upslope of a point was more important for the soil water content than the value of the
ground slope ( p ) at the point. The water flow that drains the steep sideslopes and converges laterally
into the valley was assumed mainly to be saturated during the relatively short period after an irrigation
event when there is a saturated zone in the loose soil layer on the catchment sides. Lateral unsaturated
102 L. NYBERG

flow, as found, for example, by McCord and Stephens (1987), could not be excluded for the layered sloping
till soil in this study. Such flow would result in a redistribution of water from the sideslopes to the accumu-
lation areas in the valley, not only during high flow events but also during drier periods.
The influence of topography on the soil water content was furthermore indicated by the geostatistical
analysis. The range of influence of 20 m of the water content variogram was interpreted as a characteristic
length for the topographically homogeneous subareas. The similar shape of the variograms for water content
and ln(a/ tan p), both in an east-west direction, could be due to an effect of the valley topography on the water
content. The maximum semi-variance was found for pairs with 20-40 m internal distance. This was interpreted
as data pairs with one data point on the sideslopes and one point in the valley, which could be seen as topo-
graphically heterogenous conditions. For pairs with a longer internal distance, which had lower semi-variance,
the two points were located in areas with similar topography on either side of the valley.
Vertical drainage as a sink of water for the upper soil layers was assumed to depend on the distance to the
groundwater surface and the water retention of the soil. The existence of a groundwater zone in subareas
2 and 6, as an effect of flow concentration and of bedrock topography, resulted in high soil water content
in those areas (Figure 7). In subarea 5, with a mean soil depth of 72cm, no groundwater zone was found,
and still the mean water content was about as large as in subarea 6. Here, the anomalously high soil water
retention as found by Nyberg (in press) might have compensated for the higher tension. The significance for
vertical drainage of fractures in the bedrock underlying the till soil could not be estimated from the results
of this study.
The effect of soil depth on lateral water content variability, which was only estimated from mean values
of the eight subareas, could not be distinguished with any certainty from the effects of macro-topography.
The lack of correlation between water content and the distance to the nearest tree support the findings by
Clemensson-Lindell and Persson (1995) that the fine roots and their influences on soil water content are
randomly distributed in the lateral plane. We might expect that the largest decrease in water content
between the two mappings would occur in the areas with a low topographic index, which are areas with
a small upstream area and large ground slope. There was, however, no significant correlation between
In(a/tano) and the decrease in water content between the two mappings. Furthermore, the decrease in
water content between the two mappings was spatially uniform and amounted to more than 25 mm com-
pared with the accumulated runoff of less than 1 mm. These conditions suggested that evapotranspiration
was the major sink for water during the experimental period.

CONCLUSIONS
The TDR technique using vertically inserted probes proved to be a suitable tool to map the soil water con-
tent in an area. The variability of water content in the covered catchment was large, mainly as an effect of
the topography and of the soil conditions. Of the two components forming the topographic index
ln(a/tanP). the size of the upslope draining area (a) was a more important factor for the water content
than the angle of the ground slope ( p ) .The loss of water in the upper soil layers between the two mappings
was interpreted as an effect of evapotranspiration.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author is grateful to Jan Seibert for assistance in field and for helping with various calculations. Many
thanks also to Lars Gottschalk, Allan Rodhe and Kevin Bishop for criticizing the manuscript, and to IVL,
Goteborg, which contributed the basic data from the covered catchment. This study was supported by the
Swedish Natural Science Research Council and the European Network of Catchments Organized for Re-
search on Ecosystems (ENCORE).

REFERENCES
Alharthi, A,. and Lange, J . 1987. ‘Soil water saturation: dielectric determination’. Wut. Rrsoirr. Res.. 23, 591 -595
 SPATIAL VARIABILITY OF SOIL WATER 103

Anderson, M. G., and Burt, T. P. 1978. ‘The role of topography in controlling throughflow generation’, Earfh Surj Process., 3,
331-344.
Bathurst, J. C., and OConnell, P. E. 1992. ‘Future of distributed modelling; the Systeme Hydrologique Europeen’, Hydrol. Process., 6,
265-277.
Beven, K. J., and Kirkby, M. J. 1979. ‘A physically based, variable contributing area model of basin hydrology’, Hydro/. Sci. Bull., 24,
43-69.
Bouten, W., Heimovaara, T. J., and Tiktak, A. 1992. ‘Spatial patterns of throughfall and soil water dynamics in a Douglas fir stand’,
War. Resour. Res., 28, 3227-3233.
Clark, I . 1979. Practical Geostaristics. Elsevier, London. 129 pp.
Clemensson-Lindell, A,, and Persson, H. 1995. ‘The effects of nitrogen addition and removal on fine-root vitality and distribution in
three catchment areas at Girdsjon’, Forest Ecology and Management, 71, 123-131.
Dalton, F. N., and van Genuchten, M. Th. 1986. ‘The time-domain reflectometry method for measuring soil water content and
salinity’, Geoderma, 38, 237-250.
Dasberg, S., and Hopmans, J. W. 1992. ‘Time domain reflectometry calibration for uniformly and nonuniformly wetted sandy and
clayey loam soils’, Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 56, 1341-1345.
Harr, R. D. 1977. ‘Water flux in soil and subsoil on a steep forested slope’, J . Hydrol., 33, 37-58.
Hawley, M. E., Jackson, T. J., and McCuen, R. H. 1983. ‘Surface soil moisture variation on small agricultural watersheds’, J . Hydrol.,
62, 179-200.
Heimovaara, T. J. 1993. ‘Time domain reflectometry in soil science: theoretical backgrounds, measurements and models’, PhD Thesis,
University of Amsterdam.
Henninger, D. L., Petersen, G. W., and Engman, E. T. 1976. ‘Surface soil moisture within a watershed - variations, factors influen-
cing, and relationship to surface runoff’, Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 40, 773-776.
Herkelrath, W. N., Hamburg, S. P., and Murphy, F. 1991. ‘Automatic, real-time monitoring of soil moisture in a remote field area with
time domain reflectometry’, War. Resour. Res., 27, 857-864.
Hills, R. C., and Reynolds, S. G. 1969. ‘Illustrations of soil moisture variability in selected areas and plots of different sizes’, J . Hydrol.,
8, 27-47.
Hultberg, H., Anderson, B. I., and Moldan, F. 1993. ‘The covered catchment - an experimental approach to reversal of acidification
in a forest system’ in Rasmussen, L., Brydges, T., and Mathy, P. (Eds), Experimental Manipulations of Biota and Biogeochemical
Cycling in Ecosystems. Ecosysrems Research Report No. 4, Commission of the European Communities.
Johansson, B. 1985. ‘A study of soil water and groundwater flow of hillslopes - using a mathematical model’, Nordic Hydrol., 16,
67-80.
Knight, J. H. 1992. ‘Sensitivity of time domain reflectometry measurements to lateral variations in soil water content’, W a f .Resour.
Res., 28, 2345-2352.
McCord, J. T., and Stephens, D. B. 1987. ‘Lateral moisture flow beneath a sandy hillslope without an apparent impeding layer’,
Hydrol. Process., 1, 225-238.
Melkerud, P.-A. 1983. ‘Quaternary deposits and bedrock outcrops in an area around Lake Girdsjon, south-western Sweden, with
physical, mineralogical and geochemical investigations’, Rep. Forest Ecol. Forest Soils No. 44, Department of Forest Soils, Swedish
University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, 87 pp.
Nordkn, L.-G. 1989. ‘Water use by Norway spruce’, PhD Thesis, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, UmeB.
Nyberg, L. ‘Water flow path interactions with soil hydraulic properties in till soil at GBrdsjon, Sweden’, in press.
Nyberg, L., Bishop, K., and Rodhe, A. 1993. ‘Importance of hydrology in the reversal of acidification in till soils, GQrdsjon, Sweden’,
Appl. Geochem., Suppl. Issue No. 2, 61-66.
O’Loughlin, E. M. 1981. ‘Saturation regions in catchments and their relations to soil and topographic properties’, J . Hydro/., 53,
229-246.
Price, A. G., and Bauer, B. 0. 1984. ‘Small-scale heterogeneity and soil-moisture variability in the unsaturated zone’, J. Hydrol., 70,
277-293.
Quinn, P., Beven, K., Chevallier, P., and Planchon, 0. 1991. ‘The prediction of hillslope flow paths for distributed hydrological
modelling using digital terrain models’, Hydrol. Process., 5, 59-79.
Roth, K., Schulin, R., Fliihler, H., and Attinger, W. 1990. ‘Calibration of time domain reflectometry for water content measurement
using a composite dielectric approach’, War. Resour. Res., 26, 2267-2273.
Russo, D., and Bresler, E. 1981. ‘Effect of field variability in soil hydraulic properties on solutions of unsaturated water and salt flows’,
Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J . , 45, 675-681.
Schuh, W. M., Meyer, R. F., Sweeney, M. D., and Gardner, J. C. 1993. ‘Spatial variation of root-zone and shallow vadose-zone
drainage on a loamy glacial till in a sub-humid climate’, J . Hydrol., 148, 1-26.
Topp, G. C., Davis, J. L., and Annan, A. P. 1980. ‘Electromagnetic determination of soil water content measurements in coaxial
transmission lines’, War. Resour. Res., 16, 574-582.
Topp, G. C . , Davis, J . L., and Annan. A. P. 1982. ‘Electromagnetic determination of soil water content using TDR: I. Applications to
wetting fronts and steep gradients’, Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 46, 672-678.
Unlu, K., Nielsen, D. R., Biggar, J . W., and Morkoc, F. 1990. ‘Statistical parameters characterizing the spatial variability of selected
soil hydraulic properties’, Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 54, 1537-1547.
Weast, R. C. (Ed.) 1986. Handbook of Physic.7 and Chemistry. CRC Press, Boca Raton.
Zaslavsky, D., and Sinai, G. 1981. ‘Surface hydrology: I . Explanation of phenomena’, J. Hydr. Die.Am. Soc. Civ. Eng.. Proc. Pap.,
15958, 107(HYI), 1--16.