Modeling Soil Pore Oxygen in Restored Wetlands

Abstract:

Soil pore oxygen (O₂) is usually modeled indirectly as a function of soil moisture. However, using soil moisture to describe the oxic /anoxic status of a soil may not be sufficient accurate, especially when soil pore O₂ rapidly changes, as following hydrological forcing. As first step, we use the dataset collected in the constructed wetland near Dayton, OH, by Loecke and Burgin, to reconstruct the environmental functions and re-aeration status of the soil. The dataset consist of 24 Apogee sensors and 24 soil moisture and temperature sensors located at 10 cm depth in upland, transitional and submerged zone (see Figure 1). Data were recorded over two years at temporal interval of 30 minutes. Then, we explore the capability of existing biogeochemical models to predict metabolic activity and the soil pore O_2.

Figure1: Restored wetland field site with soil O2 sensors (yellow stars) in upland (red), transitional (green) and submerged (blue) zones.