Monitoring soil cracking and plant parameters for a mixed grass species

Limited studies have investigated the effect of vegetation growth and evapotranspiration (E_tr) on desiccation parameter - crack intensity factor (CIF) considering a single species. Moreover, the role of inherent shoot parameters [stomatal conductance (SC) and photosynthetic yield (Y-II)] is generally ignored, leaving gaps in the authors' understanding of its effects on CIF. This letter monitors and quantifies the effects of plant parameters [SC, Y-II, Etr and vegetation density (VD)] on soil suction and consequent CIF for a native mixed grass species. The vegetation undergoes eight drying cycles in compacted soil under natural environmental conditions and controlled irrigation scheduling. It is seen that the grass species helped reducing the maximum CIF of bare soil by 20%. A VD growth of 40% restricts further increase in CIF. The measured E_tr of the vegetation is found to be very low in the study and potentially not induce additional transpiration-induced suction that can generate excessive cracks in crop species. Furthermore, the measured SC in the current vegetation species with respect to reported SC of crop species provides evidence that SC regulates a species' ability to transpire and induce suction. The Y-II values did not give a conclusive idea of its role in soil crack propagation.