Water Movement in Dry Soils

Summary hysteresis that occurs in the micro‐hydrological characteristics of a soil (conductivity and diffusivity) as functions of water content and water potential between sorption and desorption is examined for three soils (sand, loam, and clay) and sepiolite. These materials, all aggregated, are sufficiently dry that both the vapour and liquid components of water movement are important. any water content or water potential the vapour conductivity is always bigger when wetting than when drying though differences may be small. There is hysteresis in water (vapour+liquid) conductivity as a function of water content when vapour flow but not liquid flow is dominant. Conversely, there is hysteresis in water conductivity as a function of water potential when liquid flow but not vapour flow is dominant. Both forms of this hysteresis are small. Hysteresis in diffusivity as a function of both water content and water potential exists, but is complicated. Variations caused by hysteresis, though real, are likely to be negligible in practice, swamped by effects caused by changes in the soil environment (e.g. temperature) or by changes in soil management (e.g. structure).