Spatial and temporal variation of soil moisture near the interface of high/low stands

In order to explore the spatial variability of soil moisture near the interface of high/low stands, an experiment was conducted at Luancheng Experimental Station, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hebei, China from May to June, 1996. By analyzing the observed soil moisture data, it shows that there exists an obvious turning point of soil moisture pattern from one side of the interface to another. The effect of drier soil closer to the interface in winter wheat field is obvious, which is mainly due to the better ventilation condition near the interface in winter wheat filed than in alfalfa field. The irrigation in large scale is one of the most important factors to control the spatial pattern of soil moisture while the small scale human disturbing activity, such as the stealing event occurred during our observation, does not change the spatial pattern of soil moisture obviously. Latent heat, calculated by Bowen ratio method based on our observed micrometeorological data, is shown larger in alfalfa than that in winter wheat both at earring stage from May 8 to 10 and mature stage from June 11 to 14. This fact, together with the larger ground temperature and a little bit larger wind velocity in lower layer, explains that the soil is drier in alfalfa than in winter wheat from May 8 to 10. While for the period from June 11 to 14, irrigation’s effect changes the natural interrelationship of soil moisture with meteorology and ground temperature.