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Vadose Zone Journal Celebrates
20th VolumeBy DJ McCauleyIn 2002, inaugural Vadose Zone Journal (VZJ) Editor Rien van Genuchten
wrote, “The scientific community
needs a home for research that covers
all of the physical, chemical, and biological aspects of the vadose zone, especiallymultidisciplinary research.” Nineteen years
and 20 volumes later, that home certainly is VZJ.
“Vadose Zone Journal has been a fantastic addition to thescientific literature,” says Editor Markus Flury. “It has pioneered
research on the interface between the atmosphere and thegeosphere, bringing this critical zone to the forefront.”
Not only is the journal broad-reaching, transdisciplinary, andimpactful, it also set some prescient trends in scientific publishing. Since its inception, VZJ has been entirely paperless, and it
was the first ASA, CSSA, or SSSA journal to transition to an open
access model. In the coming years, Flury hopes to see VZJ maintain the rigorous quality of its publications while expanding its
reach into more interdisciplinary research. It’s a goal perfectly inkeeping with Genuchten’s vision: for VZJ to “break down barriers between disciplines and societies while also narrowing theincreasingly severe gap between the state-of-the-science andthe state-of-the-practice.”
Below, you can see a top five list of VZJ’s all-time most-citedarticles, which neatly illustrate the journal’s wide range of subject
matter and current applicability to a huge swath of disciplines.

VZJ’s Top Five Most-Cited
Articles1. “Development and Applications of the HYDRUS and STANMOD Software Packages and Related Codes” (Šimůneket al., 2008)—1082 Citations
The definitive paper on applications of HYDRUS and STANMOD, two widely used modeling tools developed by the30

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USDA-ARS and the University of California–Riverside overthree decades. These modeling tools help researchers better
calculate vadose zone flow, which scientists use as foundational tools of the trade today.
2. “Measuring Soil Water Content with Ground Penetrating Radar: A Review” (Huisman et al., 2003)—989
CitationsGeophysicists, forensic anthropologists, engineers, and,of course, soil scientists have all cited this comprehensive review—and that’s just in 2021. This review outlines
ground-penetrating radar technology and techniques, offering insights that a broad range of researchers have counted
essential. In 2018, VZJ published a follow-up review, offering
another decade’s worth of insights for an incredibly practical,
transdisciplinary technique.
3. “A Review of Advances in Dielectric and Electrical Conductivity Measurement in Soils Using Time Domain Reflectometry” (Robinson et al., 2003)—982 Citations
This paper tackles time domain reflectometry (TDR) techniques that measure a material’s permittivity—that is,
its ability to store electrical energy in an electrical field.
Coupled with EC, TDR is a useful technique to estimate thewater content in soil. This year alone, scientists cited thisarticle in new research on precision agriculture, biochar
DOI: 10.1002/csan.20584
October 2021

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applications, tree stem water content, and monitoring
general agricultural field conditions.
4. “Estimating Uncertain Flow and Transport Parameters Using a Sequential Uncertainty Fitting Procedure”(Abbaspour et al., 2004)—876 Citations
If you’re looking for a statistical term that sounds like a Star
Trek reference, this paper has it. Using Latin hypercubesampling, among many other techniques, this research teamcreated a model that better analyzes the uncertainty in calculating the cause of water movement in the soil. They used two
municipal solid waste incinerator bottom ash landfills to test
the model, monitoring the leachates coming from the site.
This paper has recently popped up in ground and satellite
watershed monitoring, crop production, water management,
and land use studies.
5. “Soil Moisture Measurement for Ecological and Hydrological Watershed-Scale Observatories: A Review” (Robinsonet al., 2008)—838 Citations
This review tackles advances in sensor technology—particularly geophysical methods and distributed sensors—forbetter understanding how soil hydrology impacts the watershed. Soil moisture impacts runoff, microbial activity, nitrification, and respiration. The paper has been cited in plantspecies composition studies, broad analyses of climate, and“plant wearable” technology, to name a few recent articles.

Using Soil Moisture Information
to Better Understand andPredict Wildfire Danger(continued from p. 29)

Dig Deeper• R ead Rien van Genuchten’s inaugural letter from theeditor here: https://doi.org/10.2136/vzj2002.1000• R ead the current editorial team’s perspective on VZJ’s
20th anniversary here: https://doi.org/10.1002/vzj2.20141

References
Abbaspour, K.C., Johnson, C.A., & van Genuchten, M.Th. (2004). Estimating
uncertain flow and transport parameters using a sequential uncertainty
fitting procedure. Vadose Zone Journal, 3(4), 1340–1352. https://doi.
org/10.2136/vzj2004.1340
Huisman, J.A., Hubbard, S.S., Redman, J.D., & Annan, A.P. (2003). Measuring
soil water content with ground penetrating radar: A review. Vadose Zone
Journal, 2(4), 476–491. https://doi.org/10.2136/vzj2003.4760
Robinson, D.A., Campbell, C.S., Hopmans, J.W., Hornbuckle, B.K. Jones,S.B. Knight, R. Ogden, F., Selker, J., & Wendroth, O. (2008). Soil moisture measurement for ecological and hydrological watershed-scaleobservatories: A review. Vadose Zone Journal, 7(1), 358–389. https://doi.org/10.2136/vzj2007.0143
Robinson, D.A., Jones, S.B., Wraith, J.M., Or, D., & Friedman, S.P. (2003). Areview of advances in dielectric and electrical conductivity measurement in soils using time domain reflectometry. Vadose Zone Journal,2(4), 444–475. https://doi.org/10.2136/vzj2003.4440
Šimůnek, J., van Genuchten, M.Th., & Šejna, M. (2008). Development
and applications of the HYDRUS and STANMOD software packages
and related codes. Vadose Zone Journal, 7(2), 587–600. https://doi.
org/10.2136/vzj2007.0077
Ochsner, T.E., Cosh, M.H., Cuenca, R.H., Dorigo, W.A., Draper, C.S., Hagimoto,Y., … Zreda, M. (2013). State of the art in large-scale soil moisture monitoring. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 77, 1888–1919.
Rakhmatulina, E., Stephens, S., & Thompson, S. (2021). Soil moisture
influences on Sierra Nevada dead fuel moisture content and fire risks.
Forest Ecology and Management, 496, 119379. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
foreco.2021.119379

Levi, M.R., & Bestelmeyer, B.T. (2016). Biophysical influences on the spatial
distribution of fire in the desert grassland region of the southwestern USA. Landscape Ecology, 31, 2079–2095. https://doi.org/10.1007/
s10980-016-0383-9

Rigden, A.J., Powell, R.S., Trevino, A., McColl, K.A., Huybers, P. (2020). Microwave retrievals of soil moisture improve grassland wildfire predictions. Geophysical Research Letters, 47, e2020GL091410. https://doi.
org/10.1029/2020GL091410

Levi, M.R., & Bestelmeyer, B.T. (2018). Digital soil mapping for fire prediction and management in rangelands. Fire Ecology, 14, 11. https://doi.
org/10.1186/s42408-018-0018-4

Roman, J., Verzoni, A., & Sutherland, S. (2020). The wildfire crisis: Greetingsfrom the 2020 wildfire season. NFPA Journal, 20 November.

Lu, Y., & Wei, C. (2021). Evaluation of microwave soil moisture data formonitoring live fuel moisture content (LFMC) over the coterminous
United States. Science of The Total Environment, 771, 145410. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145410
National Interagency Fire Center. (2021). National Fire News. https://www.
nifc.gov/fire-information/nfn
O, S., Hou, X., & Orth, R. (2020). Observational evidence of wildfire-promoting soil moisture anomalies. Scientific Reports 10, 11008. https://doi.
org/10.1038/s41598-020-67530-4
October 2021

Sharma, S., Carlson, J.D., Krueger, E.S., Engle, D.M., Twidwell, D., Fuhlendorf,S.D., … Ochsner, T.E. (2020). Soil moisture as an indicator of growing-season herbaceous fuel moisture and curing rate in grasslands. International
Journal of Wildland Fire, 30(1), 57–69. https://doi.org/10.1071/WF19193
Thomas Ambadan J., Oja, M., Gedalof, Z., & Berg, A.A. (2020). Satellite-observed
soil moisture as an indicator of wildfire risk. Remote Sensing 12, 1543.
Zhang, N., Quiring, S.M., & Ford, T.W. (2021). Blending Noah, SMOS, and inSitu soil moisture using multiple weighting and sampling schemes.
Journal of Hydrometeorology, 22, 1835–1854. https://doi.org/10.1175/
jhm-d-20-0119.1
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