Preferential water flows in meadow-chernozemic soil of the Saratov Transvolga region

The development of preferential gravity water flows in a leached meadow-chernozemic soil on stratified ancient alluvial deposits in the Saratov Transvolga region was studied using simple cell lysimeters in infiltration experiments. The measured lysimeter runoff within a horizontal section of a soil body comparable in size to the cross section of a cell lysimeter varied from completely absent to a rather intense. Depending on changes in the lysimeter runoff rate during the infiltration stages, the pore space continua with uniform, stable functioning and those with varying functioning (increasing or decreasing runoff) can be distinguished in a soil body. Labeling experiments showed that a decrease in the rate of lysimeter runoff to the cell was accompanied by an increase in the dilution of irrigation water with pore solutions.