sorptivity is defined as the capacity of soil to absorb or desorb water by capillarity. but what does higher sorptivity mean? does it mean the part of infiltartion that depends on capillarity would be higher? is higher sorptivity desirable?
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Chapter Sorptivity of Soils
https://www.dri.edu/images/stories/editors/ndamon/Maki-Sorptivity-Report-FINAL.pdf
When you do infiltration measurements on a soil surface some portion of water will be used to fill empty pores (or, more precisely, will be adsorbed by capillary forces), and the remaining portion will move down driven by the force of gravity.
Hence, the part of infiltration that depends on capillarity depends on the initial wetting state of your soil. Whether high sorptivity would be desirable or not depends on context.
"Sorptivity refers to the removal from the soil solution of an ion or molecule by adsorption and absorption. This term is often used when the exact mechanism of removal is not known". (From: Brady and Weil, 2002, pg.933)
Sorptivity can be desirable for example in an effort to remove pollutants from a contaminated soil, where an amendment with high sorptivity is employed in order to catch the toxins and decontaminate the affected soil.
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