Field capacity dynamics affected by soil properties

Field capacity is a soil hydraulic property, which is used widely but not identified in full. traditionally, field capacity is the amount of soil moisture or water content held in soil after excess water is drained away and downward movement stops. in reality, a true field capacity is never reached since soil water continuously drains after readily drained soil water leaves the soil. a universally accepted threshold value for soil water flow rate to be negligible has not been determined yet. soil water flow rate of a clay soil at field capacity is far greater than that of a coarse textured soil. in this regard, a universally applicable threshold value of soil water flow rate should be set for sand, loamy and clay soils. this value may be used as a reference for field capacity for soil texture classes, and corresponding soil water pressure may be used as “soil water pressure” for field capacity of related soil texture classes. in this literature review, the previous assumptions on field capacity and new definitions were evaluated and application of field capacity was discussed.