Soil Water Measurement with an Inexpensive Spectrophotometer

Bowers, S.A. and Smith, S.J. and Fisher, H.D. and Miller, G.E. (1975) Soil Water Measurement with an Inexpensive Spectrophotometer. Soil Science Society of America Proceedings. 39(3):391-393.

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Abstract

RECENTLY Bowers and Smith (1) showed that soil water
content can be measured by transmitting 1.94 µm
through a methanol-soil extract. They proposed a rapid and
accurate procedure; however, the required spectrophotometer
was very expensive. The purpose of this investigation
was to build an inexpensive spectrophotometer sufficiently
sensitive to measure minute amounts of water. Construction
of such an instrument seemed feasible, since Norris and
Hart (3) had previously shown a relatively inexpensive
spectrophotometer could be built to measure the water content
of grain. Their procedure involved transmitting light
through a ground grain-carbon tetrachloride paste or
through intact grains.

Item Type:	Article
NWISRL Publication Number:	0350
Subjects:	Soil > Soil water (soil moisture) Research methodology Mass Import - autoclassified (may be erroneous)
Depositing User:	Dan Stieneke
Date Deposited:	20 Nov 2010 21:51
Last Modified:	15 Feb 2017 18:19
Item ID:	301
URI:	https://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/id/eprint/301