Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Mildly Hydrophobic Biobased Mulch: A Sustainable Approach To Controlling Bare Soil Evaporation, Jesse Lee Barnes, Michael John Nicholl

Geoscience Faculty Publications

© 2020 The Authors. Vadose Zone Journal published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Soil Science Society of America Mulching with polyethylene film is the conventional approach to decrease evaporative water loss from agricultural soils, but it is not environmentally sustainable. In this study, a laboratory experiment was conducted to test the potential utility of partially polymerized soybean oil (PSO) coated sands as a surface treatment to reduce bare soil evaporation. Evaporation was tracked for 23.8 d from saturated sand columns treated with a surface layer (1 or 2 cm) of either coated medium sand (MS-PSO) or coated coarse …