Seasonal Flooding and Rice Cultivation Effects on the Pore Size Distribution of a SiL Soil

In this work we evaluated the effects of a) rice cultivation under flooding conditions and b) seasonal flooding (May-October) without cultivation, on the pore size distribution of a SiL soil. Soil cores were collected from two different depth intervals (0-15 cm and 15-30 cm). After two years under flooding conditions, textural porosity increased at the expense of structural porosity. A percentage of drainage pores collapsed to storage pores; however, this time period was inadequate to bring about changes in the microporosity of the SiL soil. In the depth interval 15-30 cm, the rice root development reduced the effects of flooding on soil porosity.