Polyester casts for the study of the pore structure in soils.

Abstract

The system of voids occurring in natural soils (a river levee soil, a river basin soil, and a bottom sediment of the river Rhine containing mudworm burrows) was studied by impregnating moist samples with polyester resin and washing out the soil material after the resin had hardened; a cast of the pore structure was thus obtained. The cast and stereo photographs obtained from a preliminary experiment with modelling clay (to test the reliability of the method) suggested that the method would allow good qualitative interpretation. In the basin soil, the existing meadow grass vegetation was mainly responsible for the cavities observed in the upper horizons, but in the unripened subsoil, the system of cavities was derived from the former swamp vegetation. The levee soil contained abundant voids whose origin was not easily attributed to a single specific cause. The ped structure of both soils was clearly expressed by the planes in the casts, representing the voids along ped faces. Burrowing activity was clearly shown in casts from a pot experiment and from Rhine bottom river sediment. The method offered prospects for soil hydrology studies. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission)