OCCURRENCE OF WATER REPELLENCY IN NORTH GREEK SOILS WITH EMPHASIS ON SPORTS FIELDS, AGRICULTURAL AND PASTURE LAND

Many soils may be water repellent to some degree, challenging the common perception that soil water repellency is only an interesting aberration. When dry, water repellent soils resist or retard water infiltration into the soil matrix. Soil water repellency often leads to the development of unstable wetting and preferential flow paths. In the present study the persistence of water repellency was examined on samples from topsoils in Northern Greece, using the Water Drop Penetration Time (WDPT) test. The soil samples were collected from a golf course, a pasture, and an agricultural field throughout the prefectures of Chalkidiki, Rodopi and Xanthi. Water repellency was measured both on field-moist soil samples and after drying the samples at increasing temperatures, in order to study the influence of drying temperature on the severity of water repellency persistence. This study provides examples of uneven moisture patterns in water repellent sand with grass cover, in agricultural fields under different crops, and in a water repellent sandy sports field (golf course).