Impact of land use change on the water dynamics of Entisols de Corrientes Argentina
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Abstract
The increase in hectares of forested land in the province of Corrientes on soils with a water table close to the surface may have an impact on water dynamics. The objective was to evaluate the dynamics of soil water after the replacement of natural grasslands. The treatments analyzed were: Medium-term forest plantation (PMP) and grassland (TPN). The study area was Concepción-Corrientes- Argentina, we placed portable automatic weather stations, which include a humidity sensor with measurements every 0.10 m up to the depth of 1.20 m. The data obtained from both stations were statistically analyzed for soil moisture with the LSD test. We worked with three repetitions of each treatment; at the beginning of the study, to determine the depth of the water table and corroborate the characteristics of the soil under study. The months evaluated were nine, considering wet and dry season according to the zonal characteristics. The volumetric moisture content was consistently and significantly higher in the control than in the medium-term plantation for each of the depths evaluated, except for the months of January 2018 (-25 to -30 cm) and March 2018 at the depth of -65 cm, where no statistically significant differences were found, which was corroborated by the freatmeter data for the month of March (2018), where the smallest difference in height of the water layer (-18.4 cm) was obtained. It was found that PMP decrease the volumetric content of soil water and, consequently, depress the level of the water table with respect to that of the grassland.