Greetings, fellow soil ninjas!! Today we will be looking at the plant available water in Paxton soil. This particular profile in Newtown, CT has roots in the uppermost three horizons – Ap, Bw1, and Bw2. We will calculate the plant available water (PAW) for each of these horizons below:

The uppermost three horizons of Paxton soil, where the root zone is located, have a very low percentage of rock content (between 5 -10%). Rock fragments, unlike soil, are unable to hold plant available water, therefore decreasing the amount of PAW that the root-zone horizons of the profile can hold. In this particular profile of Paxton, the small percentage of rocks indicates that the calculated plant available water is likely close to accurate, as there are not many rocks in the equation that would lower the PAW capacity of the soil. The upper horizon of the Paxton soil profile (Ap) is heavily covered with organic material, which may increase the plant available water because more water is made easily available to plants due to improved aggregation.

Sources Cited:
Saxton, K. E., Dr. (1997, February 18). Soil Texture Triangle: Hydraulic Properties Calculator. Retrieved October 17, 2018, from
http://resources.hwb.wales.gov.uk/VTC/env-sci/module2/soils/soilwatr.htm