Measurement of solute fluxes in macroporous soils: techniques, problems and precision

Preferential flow has been increasingly recognised as a major component of water movement in many soils, particularly clays. This paper reviews problems in the measurement of solute fluxes in these soils, and discusses the solutions that have been adopted in UK studies of cracking clay soils. The estimation of solute fluxes is subject to many sources of error, which are best reduced by replicated measurements, such as those available in multi-plot experiments.