2.2.1 Soil Physical Analysis
In order to determine the physical attributes of the soil, undisturbed
samples were taken with cylinders that were 5cm tall and 5cm in
diameter. Then, the following variables were measured: a) bulk density
(BD) using the cylinder method (Klute &
Page, 1986); b) saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat)
using the variable load method (Reynolds
& Elrick, 2002), following the pore size distribution method (c) total
porosity (TP); (d) aeration porosity (AP: pores of >15 µm
radius); and (e) retention porosity (RP), using the saturation tension
table method with -10 kPa a matric potential
(Blake & Hartge, 1986).