MBONU, O. A. and BABALOLA, O. (2006). Field-Measured and Model-Estimated Cumulative Infiltration on a Desurfaced Alfisol in Semi-Humid Tropics. Acta Agronomica Nigeriana. Vol. 7(1) 32-37.
Abstract:
The cumulative infiltration of a desurfaced paleustalf in a humid tropical environment of western Nigeria, was measured using the double ring infiltrometer. There were 4 treatments including manual removal of topsoil to 2, 5, and 10 cm depths with 0 cm desurfacing as control. The main and two modified each of the Philip’s and Kostiakov’s infiltration models were subjected to curve fitting in order to obtain the soil parameters in each of the infiltration models. Sorptivity (S) and transmissivity (A) generally decreased and increased respectively, with depth for the top 10 cm depth. Equilibrium infiltration rate (Ic) and A were found to be highly negatively correlated with saturated hydraulic conductivity (Kr) with r values of -0.86 and -0.94 respectively. The mean magnitude of these three water intake parameters was in (he order 5.33 > 4.00 > 2.53 cm hr’ for Ic, A and Ks respectively. For this soil of slow infiltration, prediction by both the main Philip’s and Kostiakov’s models did not vary widely will, each order. They however, deviated widely from the experimental data, for all levels of desurfacing.