Unsaturated Soil Behavior Under the Combined Influence of Water-absorbing Polymer and Vegetation

Abstract

This study deals with the study on soil-WAP-vegetation-atmosphere interaction under drought or water stress condition and its impact on unsaturated soil behavior. The WAP interaction with soil and external ionic materials (such as fertilizers) significantly affects their water-absorbing capacity and overall performance. Therefore, the combined interaction of WAP- fertilizers and WAP degradation may inhibit the functionality of WAP, which needs to be thoroughly investigated by observing the changes in the SWCC of WAP amended soil. It is well-known that plant physiological parameters (stomatal conductance (SC) and photosynthetic yield (PY)) undergoes changes during the period of drought stress. However, there is lack of understanding on how these changes (SC and PY) can be linked with the unsaturated soil properties. Therefore, this study investigated the drought stress stages by establishing the relationship between plant's physiological characteristics and soil suction (SS).