Vanessa A.

Felices AENG 1 T-1L Exercise 4 Measurements of Soil Moisture Introduction Rainfall is a natural source of soil water that is needed by plants but it is decreased during drought and so the need to irrigate the land arises. Today, much of the worlds food supply comes from the irrigated cropland. An efficient irrigation system should be applied. Irrigation planning and proper actions need the right information regarding the right amount of water stored in the soil as well as its capacity to retain water. In order to obtain this information, soil moisture measurement is therefore necessary. Gravimetric method, feel and appearance method, tensiometer method, and Bouyoucos method among others are methods of determining soil moisture content. The objectives of this exercise are to acquaint the students with the different procedures of soil moisture content and to determine the accuracy and practicability of the different methods for soil moisture determination. Methodology Gravimetric or Oven-drying Method Using a soil auger to excavate, fresh soil samples were obtained from designated location at depths of 10cm and 20cm. Soil representative (initially weighing 60g) from each depth were put in a pre-weighed sampling can. Soil samples were then oven dried at 105-110C. After about 24 hours, samples were taken out of the oven and put into a desiccator for about 5 minutes and weight of soil sample + sampling can for Day 1 were obtained. This is done until the mass of each sample is more or less constant. In this case, measurements were taken up to the 7th day. The oven dry mass (ODM) was determined by subtracting the mass of the sampling can from the total mass of oven-dried sample + sampling can. Moisture content on a dry basis (MCm) of soil sample from each depth was computed using the formula: MCm = [(FM - ODM)/ODM] x 100 where: MCm = moisture content on a dry basis FM = fresh mass of soil sample ODM = oven dry mass of soil sample Feel and Appearance Method

Soil samples before being subjected to oven-drying method, were evaluated by feeling the soil. A handful of soil is firmly squeezed and results are compared with Table 1 showing the general relationships between soil moisture and feel and appearance of the soil. Tensiometer Method Using a tensiometer or sealed water-filled tube with a vacuum gauge on the upper end and a porous ceramic tip on the lower end buried in a plot of soil with depths 10cm and 20cm, the tension readings were obtained. Tension readings (in cBars) provide the soil water potential or soil tension. Readings are then plotted in the soil moisture depletion curved in order to determine the moisture content of each sample. Bouyoucos Method The gympsum blocks were installed at depths 10cm and 20cm and the soil moisture content was determined based on the bouyoucos meter reading. Results and Discussion In gravimetric method, the daily moisture content of the soil samples was obtained after 7 days when the weight of the samples was already constant. Daily readings were done in order to show that the amount of water stored in the soil varies or decreases within such period. Table 1. Gravimetric measurement of soil samples taken at 10cm and 20cm depths. Parameters Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 6 Day 7 20 10c 20c 10 20 10c 20c 10c 20c 10c cm m m cm cm m m m m m 8.8 10.6 8.8 10.6 8.8 10.6 8.8 10.6 8.8 10.6 52.7 43.9 53.4 42.8 48.9 40.1 51.4 40.8 48.8 40.0 51.3 40.7 48.7 39.9 51.2 40.6 48.7 39.9 50. 4 51.2 40.6 47. 8

Wt. of can (g) Wt. of can + soil (g) Dry wt. of soil (g) MCm (%)

Data showed that it was at day 7 when the samples stabilizes its weight thus it has reached its oven dried weight and so moisture content on dry basis of each sample were obtained. Sample taken at a greater depth (20cm) have a soil moisture content of 50.4% that is greater than that of the sample taken at 10cm depth which is only 47.8%. As shown from the table, no discrepancy occurred. Both samples decrease its weight over the duration. It can be inferred from this result that as the depth increases, the amount of moisture available in the soil also increases.

Table 2. Tension readings at 10cm and 20cm soil depths. Soil Depth (cm) Tension Reading (cBar) 10 26.0 20 32.0

MCm (%) 28.0 33.0

Table 2 shows that the soil tension has a direct relationship with soil depth and soil moisture content. Soil tension increases as soil depth and soil moisture content increases. Greater soil tension means that greater force is present to hold water against the soil which in turn makes the water unavailable to roots of the plants found at a greater soil depth. Table 3. Bouyoucos meter reading at 10cm and 20cm soil depths. Soil Depth (cm) 10 20 Bouyoucos meter reading 34.0 39.5 Water used (%) 67.0 62.0 Water retained (%) 33.0 38.0

Table 4. Comparison of the soil moisture contents of soil samples at 10cm and 20cm depths using four methods of soil moisture content determination. Soil depth (cm) 10 20 Gravimetri c 47.8 50.4 Soil Moisture Content (%) Feel and Tensiometer Appearance 17.5 28.0 21.0 33.0 Resistance Block 33.0 38.0

Some computations: Gravimetric Method 10cm: MCm = [(FM - ODM)/ODM] x 100 = [(60.0 40.6)/40.6] x 100 = 47.78 = 47.8 % 20cm: MCm = [(FM - ODM)/ODM] x 100 = [(60.0 39.9)/39.9] x 100 = 50.38 = 50.4 % Feel and Appearance Method Estimated soil moisture content = 25-50% Pm = PWP + %am (FC-PWP) = 14.0 + 0.25 (28-14)

Pm = 17.5 % Pm = PWP + %am (FC-PWP) = 14.0 + 0.50 (28-14) Pm = 21.0 %

Summary and Conclusion Measurement or estimation of the soil moisture of the field is necessary in order to detect or determine if there is water shortage that can reduce yields or if there is excessive water application that can result in water logging or leaching of nitrates below the root zone. Soil moisture measurement is useful in determining how much water is available for crop use, when to irrigate and how much irrigation water to apply. Thus, it is important in effective irrigation management. Moisture in the soil can be determined using different methods and instruments. But these methods may have differences in its accuracy of getting the moisture level of the soil. For direct estimation of total (both plant-available and plant-unavailable) water content of soils, the gravimetric method is the absolute technique used. Although this technique is very time consuming, it is inexpensive, simple, and highly accurate relative to other techniques. All the other methods use some property of the soil to determine its moisture content. The feel and appearance method basis its result on ones perception of the soil texture and structure while the tensiometer or irrometer gives a measure of soil water tension which actually have a direct relationship with soil moisture content. On the other hand, bouyoucos method uses the electrical resistance of soil to measure its moisture content. The last two methods were very expensive yet also accurate as compared to the other methods. Feel and appearance method requires skill in eyeball estimation and in feeling the texture of the soil. Although the data have shown the same trend in all four methods, the values obtained were significantly different to each other. These differences may be accounted for the skills in feeling the texture and moisture and the accuracy of the instruments (some have defects which causes errors in measurement). In order to minimize the errors, it is advised to obtain more samples as replicates of each soil depth.