Data examining the comparative effect of salt and soil pores on the freezing characteristic curve of laboratory and field soils

https://doi.org/10.20383/102.0391

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The data sets were used in studying the role of salt and soil pore on the freezing characteristic curve of frozen soils. In the laboratory, the soil moisture characteristic curve (SMC) of a silica sand was measured using a Hydraulic Property Analyzer (HYPROP). The soil freezing characteristic curve (SFC) of the same sand was measured using a series of column experiments with controlled total water content and pore-water salinity. In the field, data were collected from the St Denis National Wildlife Area (SDN), a mixed grassland cropped site in the Canadian prairies in Saskatchewan and the Boreal Ecosystem Research and Monitoring Sites (BERMS) Old Jack Pine (OJP) site in Saskatchewan, Canada. The data were used to validate the performance of three alternative SFC models (capillary, salt exclusion, and the combined capillary salt models).

This dataset supports the Global Water Futures project Hydrological Processes in Frozen Soils, which aims to improve understanding of soil freeze-thaw processes and methods of interpreting soil moisture data from instrumentation in frozen soils.

Amankwah, S., Ireson, A., Maule, C., Brannen, R., Mathias, S. (2021). Data examining the comparative effect of salt and soil pores on the freezing characteristic curve of laboratory and field soils [Dataset]. Federated Research Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.20383/102.0391

1. Description of methods used for collection/generation of data: The soil moisture characteristic curve (SMC) of a silica sand was measured with a Hydraulic Property Analyzer (HYPROP) in the laboratory. The soil freezing characteristic curve (SFC) (volumetric moisture content and temperature pairs) of the same sand was measured using a series of soil column freezer experiments with controlled total water content and pore-water salinity using the Stevens HydraProbe sensor. In the field, data were collected from the St Denis National Wildlife Area (SDN), a mixed grassland cropped site in the Canadian prairies in Saskatchewan and the Boreal Ecosystem Research and Monitoring Sites (BERMS) Old Jack Pine (OJP) site in Saskatchewan, Canada. At the SDN site, soil moisture content and temperature were measured with the Stevens HydraProbe sensor to quantify the SFC and the matric potential needed for the field SMCs was measured using the Campbell Scientific 229 heat dissipation matric water potential sensor. For the OJP site, the SFC was measured with the Stevens HydraProbe and the SMC was obtained from Cuenca et al. (1997). A detailed description of the methodology can be found in Amankwah, et al. (2021).

Amankwah, S. K., Ireson, A. M., Maule, C., Brannen, R., Mathias, S. A. (2021). Quantifying the soil freezing characteristic: the dominant role of salt exclusion. Under consideration for Water Resources Research. https://www.essoar.org/doi/abs/10.1002/essoar.10506652.1
Cuenca, R. H., Stangel, D. E., & Kelly, S. F. (1997). Soil water balance in a boreal forest. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 102(D24), 29355-29365. https://doi.org/10.1029/97JD02312

2. Methods for processing the data: The data were saved as csv files and imported into python for analysis

3. Describe any quality-assurance procedures performed on the data: The data was plotted and crossed checked by Dr. Andrew Ireson for possible errors before submission.

4. People involved with sample collection, processing, analysis and/or submission: The laboratory data were collected by myself. Uri Nachshon and Xicai Pan were responsible for the installation of the SDN field instrumentation back in 2013, and Bruce Johnson and all the technicians at the GIWS were responsible for collecting and organizing the data sets for the SDN and OJP field sites.

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Data can be downloaded from: https://doi.org/10.20383/102.0391