Abstract
The development of new methodologies and tools that enable to determine the water content in soil is of fundamental importance to the practice of irrigation. The objective of this study was to evaluate soil matric potential using mercury tensiometer and puncture digital tensiometer, and to compare the gravimetric soil moisture values obtained by tensiometric system with gravimetric soil moisture obtained by neutron attenuation technique. Four experimental plots were maintained with different soil moisture by irrigation. Three repetitions of each type of tensiometer were installed at 0.20 m depth. Based on the soil matric potential and the soil water retention curve, the corresponding gravimetric soil moisture was determined. The data was then compared to those obtained by neutron attenuation technique. The results showed that both tensiometric methods showed no difference under soil matric potential higher than -40 kPa. However, under drier soil, when the water was replaced by irrigation, the soil matric potential of the puncture digital tensiometer was less than those of the mercury tensiometer.
Highlights
The soil has the capacity to store water in its pores and provide part of it to the plants to the extent of their needs
The values of soil water matric potential obtained by the tensiometers ranged from -5 to -80 kPa (Figure 2)
The lowest and highest coefficient of determination (R2) between the values of soil water matric potential measured by the two reading systems have been observed in the plots P1 and P4, respectively. This fact shows that the potential values observed are similar when the soil is more humid and they are most disparate in drier soil conditions (Figure 3). These results corroborate the results found by MARTHALER et al (1983), who obtained a high coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.99) between the readings of soil matric potential measured with a mercury tensiometer and digital pressure transducer
Summary
The soil has the capacity to store water in its pores and provide part of it to the plants to the extent of their needs. Through monitoring of matric water potential in the ground, it is possible to determine the amount of water needed to be replaced to the plants by irrigation. There are direct and indirect methods to determine soil moisture. The gravimetric method is considered standard, involves collecting soil samples for each measure, making it laborious and impacting to the environment, because of the constant removal of soil from the area. This method does not allow the measure replicates in the same place, it is not suitable for evaluation which require many steps over time (CICHOTA et al, 2008)
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