Analysis of the Water Balance in a Block of Seven Drainage Lysimeters under Field Conditions

Pena Murillo R.; Pachac Huerta Y.C.; Zapana Quispe M. · Engineering, Technology and Applied Science Research (2024) · DOI: 10.48084/etasr.8583

Resumen

Water Balance (WB) allows for assessing the deficit or excess of water. For this purpose, drainage lysimeters have a mechanism to collect and quantify the amount of water that infiltrates through the soil profile, thus evaluating crop evapotranspiration. This study describes the design, construction, and calibration of a block of 7 drainage lysimeters. The lysimeters were designed with a width of 1.97 m, length of 2.49 m, and depth varying from 0.60 m to 1.10 m. For construction, four sequential layers of soil, each 0.2 m thick, were extracted. The concrete resistance of the walls and floors was 210 kg cm-2, and rhizotrons were installed on the inner wall of five of the lysimeters. Calibration included evaluating compaction in the first 3 layers, averaging 2.11, 5.18, and 7.91 kg cm-2 respectively. Infiltration ranged from 5.6 to 10.2 mm h-1. The moisture retention curve allowed determining the irrigation volume to reach Field Capacity (FC), plus an additional percentage of FC volume to produce drainage. © by the authors.

Instituciones: Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina; Universidad Nacional del Altiplano; Universidad Nacional Santiago Antúnez de Mayolo