Effects of clay type on soil hydraulic and mechanical properties - a global perspective

Clay fraction affects soil hydraulic and mechanical properties and dominates specific surface area. Clay fraction is used for soil classification and in pedotransfer functions (PTFs) to estimate soil hydraulic functions from simpler soil properties (texture). Remarkably, despite large variations in composition and properties of clay minerals, PTFs use this attribute in undifferentiated manner, applied similarly to soils in the tropics dominated by Kaolinite and temperate soils with Montmorillonite. The large specific surface area of Montmorillonite compared to Kaolinite reduces both the soil hydraulic conductivity and the residual friction angle. We develop PTFs informed by clay-type via soil specific surface area effects on saturated hydraulic conductivity and residual friction angle. For friction angle, PTFs were fitted to experimental data using information on clay content and clay type. For hydraulic conductivity, analytical models based on surface area and particle size were adapted to capture conductivity data from different climatic regions. Global distributions of clay types are used to map soil specific surface area and related hydro-mechanical properties to improve land-surface models (especially in the tropics) and refine natural hazard risk assessment (landslides and debris flows).