Dynamics of soil penetration resistance in water-controlled environments

[Display omitted] •Sandy soils reach moderate penetration resistance at field capacity.•In semi-arid climates and sandy soils, low penetration resistance occurs infrequently.•Penetration resistance in clay soils is below 10 MPa even during the dry season.•In seasonally dry climates, penetration resistance follows a beta distribution.•Wet season rainfall affects year-round penetration resistance distribution. In water-controlled environments, because rainfall is one of the primary hydroclimatic forcings, its variability can affect the dynamics of soil water content and other related processes such as soil penetration resistance (PR), plant growth, and food production. The objective of this study was to simulate the relative soil water content (s) and PR year-round considering semi-arid rainfall conditions for different soil classes. An experiment was conducted to obtain relative soil water content (s) and PR data in sandy soil and this information was combined with a data set of four soils from a similar experiment conducted on different soil texture classes. The relative soil water content and PR were simulated at a daily timescale using a stochastic soil water balance model for the five soils. The parameters of the PR-s model can be estimated from the soil texture and bulk density. Under rainfed conditions, there is a short window for tillage (plowing and cultivation) of sandy soils compared with clay soils. During the majority of a typical hydrological year, the PR reaches high values (greater than 5.0 MPa) imposing a moderate to high physical limitation for root growth in sandy soils. In the same soils, limiting PR is reached at s levels very close to the field capacity during the drying process. This indicates that an extra input of water through irrigation may be required during the establishment of crops with a well-developed root system in order to prevent impairments to root growth. The daily PR values modeled over the course of a hydrological year followed a beta distribution with shape parameters (α and β) which were strongly correlated with the frequency of rainfall events during the wet season (λwet). The modeling framework presented here for simulating relative soil water content and soil penetration resistance can be applied to agricultural systems in order to prevent physical limitations on crop growth and to plan tillage management schedules.