ENVIRSC 1C03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Phreatic Zone, Vadose Zone, Aquifer
3 Sep 2018
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Document Summary
If hygroscopic water is the only water held in a soil, plants will wilt since their root system cannot access it. Hygroscopic water is water that is tightly bound to soil particles & is inaccessible to plants. Capillary water returns to the atmosphere by evaporation & transpiration & is held in micropores in soil. Gravitational water eventually becomes groundwater & is not retained w/in soil pores. When all pores of a soil are filled w water, the field capacity is exceeded any additional water drains right. It is the only water that is available to the root systems of plants through the soil. The route that water follows in soil is important bc it affects the overall chemical composition of water. Groundwater is water that is contained w/in the saturated zone (ie, the phreatic zone) of soil. The water table is the boundary b/n the unsaturated (vadose) & the saturated zone of soil.
