THE INFLUENCE OF PEAT-MOORSH MOISTURE CONTENT ON WATER REPELLENCY

摘要

Soil wettability depends on several factors, which are principally related to the characteristics of the organic matter of the soil. Water repellency of soils also depends on actual moisture content. This effect was observed in several water-repellent mineral soils, but there is only a few of such research performed on peat-moorsh soils. The main objective of this paper is to determine the influence of moisture content of peat and moorsh material on water repellency. The persistence of water repellency was determined using water drop penetration time test. From the obtained results it can be concluded that water drop penetration time is very sensitive to soil water content changes. The examined peat samples has been characterised by lower wettability in comparison with moorsh samples. The soil water repellency determined for oven-dry samples was about one class higher than determined using air-dry samples.