What factors influence how air flows through soil? Understanding the biogeochemical processes involved, and engineering and operating the systems of the different practices, hinges on quantifying the different processes at different scales and modeling gas flow in wet porous media.
For example, even the ability to respire through a moist face mask is an air flow through a partially-saturated porous medium problem. The importance of air (and other gases) flow through porous media is drawn from its role in many natural processes and artificial practices, such as industrial filters and reactors, petroleum production, terrestrial gas emission, gas sequestration in confined aquifers, aeration of cultivated soils, remediation of contaminated geological formations, and medical applications. The importance of air flow through porous media is drawn from its role in many natural processes and artificial practices. In simple terms, why is it important to understand how air moves through soil? We asked the lead author to give an overview of airflow through soil, describe how scientists study and model it, and outline what questions remain. In turn, the flow patterns and distribution directly affect our capabilities to describe, quantify, predict, and evaluate this flow.Ī recent study in Reviews of Geophysics explores the physics governing air flow from the micron to centimeter scale, and different approaches and limitations to modeling this behavior. The manner in which air moves through soils depends on its velocity, flow direction, amount of resident water in the soil, and soil characteristics such as grain shapes and void (pore) connectivity. Editors’ Vox is a blog from AGU’s Publications Department.
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