Soil Water Repellency in Turfgrass

Soil water repellency (SWR) refers to a situation where the soil repells water. Hydrophobic soils are found in many countries on agricultural, pasture, coastal dune sands, forest, shrub lands, parks, turfgrass soils, and soils irrigated with treated wastewater. On sandy turfgrass soils, SWR appears as irregular dry areas from a few centimeters to several meters diameter with the repellency usually extending from the surface to 5-10 cm depth. Greater attention to SWR/hydrophobic areas is due to increased awareness of its negative implications, especially on soil/plant water relationships. No report of direct enzyme application for remediation of SWR has been found so enzyme technology is the basis for a project in which UGA crop and soil scientists were the first to use lacasses (lignin degrading enzymes) to enhance decomposition of organic matter in thatch and mat of turfgrass sites. The enzymes to be used are found in natural systems and enzyme activity is much less affected by changes in field environmental conditions, such as temperature, moisture and aeration, than are specific microbial populations. Treatment could be confined to the localized SWR areas as a corrective and possibly preventative measure. Due to the novel approach and success of the initial proof-of-concept studies: a) a provisional patent based on the laboratory data was submitted; b) the first report of using enzymes for alleviation of SWR was submitted as a journal article in Nov. 2012 with a follow up article for Dec. 2012; and c) several projects have been submitted for field studies to support potential commericalization.