RAPID: Influence of the Brood X Cicada Emergence on Soil Water Infiltration

In the Spring and Summer of 2021, billions of Brood X cicadas will emerge from the soil, leaving burrows and emergence holes that will potentially affect soil water infiltration rates (the movement of water into soil) and thus surface water and groundwater volumes. The current understanding of how burrowing affects soil water infiltration rates comes from individual locations with localized burrowing, which can limit our understanding of how these biological processes affect large-scale or regional hydrology.

By taking water infiltration measurements at many locations in central and southern Indiana with and without cicada emergence holes, this work will advance the understanding of how widespread burrowing can disrupt soil water hydrology. Understanding how this semi-rare cicada emergence (last one was 17-years ago) affects regional hydrology has implications for many environmental science topics such as vegetation water use, river volumes, groundwater table heights, and changes in water quality.

The work will also provide valuable research experience for two undergraduate and two graduate students. Results will be disseminated in manuscripts, conference presentations, news releases, and public data portals.

In this project, infiltration rates will be measured at multiple locations with and without cicada emergence holes, to improve understanding of how large-scale soil disturbances affect regional hydrology. Using portable infiltrometers in varying landscapes and soils throughout central and southern Indiana, they will measure the influence of cicada emergence holes at two scales: the macropore scale (e.g., one cicada emergence hole) and multi-macropore scale (e.g., many cicada emergence holes).

Results generated from this work will improve understanding of how soil disturbance affects infiltration rates, which has important implications for hydrological processes (e.g., surface runoff, groundwater recharge), water quality (e.g., agricultural leeching), and watershed management.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.