(Sparks et al., 1996); another part was used to determine soil water
aggregate stability by a wet sieving (Le Bissonnais et al., 1996).
Briefly, aliquots of 10 g air-dried soil aggregates were gently
immersed into a 250 cm
3
beaker containing 100 cm
3
of deionized
water for 10 min to allow slaking, and then transferred to the top of
a set of sieves (2, 0.25 and 0.053 mm). The set of sieves was
submerged in water and moved up and down by about 10 mm with
20 repetitions in 10 min below the water table. The soils remained
on the sieves were dried at 105
C for overnight to determine
weight. The aggregate stability was expressed by the mean weight
diameter (MWD) (van Bavel, 1950) (Eq.(1))