Abstract
Soil moisture content directly influences yield. Mapping within field soil moisture content differences provides information for agricultural management practices.
In this study we aimed to find a cost-effective method for mapping within field soil moisture content differences. Spatial coverage of the field sampling or TDR method is still not dense enough for site-specific soil management. Soil moisture content can be calculated by measuring the apparent soil electrical conductivity (ECa) using the Veris Soil EC-3100 on-the-go soil mapping tool. ECa is temperature dependent; therefore values collected in different circumstances were standardized to 25°C temperature (EC25). Constants for Archie’s adjusted law were calculated separately, using soil temperature data. According to our results, volumetric moisture content can be mapped by applying ECa measurements in our particular field with high spatial accuracy. Even though within-field differences occure in the raw ECa map standardization to EC25 is recommended.
Soil moisture map was also compared to yield map showing correlation (R2 = 0.5947) between the two datasets.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Institute of Hydrology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, the Hungarian Institute of Agricultural Engineering of the Ministry of Rural Development for providing equipment needed for the experiment. This research was founded by VKSZ_12-l-2013-0034 “Agricultural Climate” Competitiveness and Excellence Contract project.
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