Lysimeter

Abstract: A model is presented for calculating the daily evaporation rate from a crop surface. It applies to a row crop canopy situation in which the soil water supply to the plant roots is not limited and the crop has not come into an advanced stage of maturation or senescence. The crop evaporation rate is calculated by adding the soil surface and plant surface components (each of these requiring daily numbers for the leaf area index), the potential evaporation, the rainfall, and the net radiation above the canopy. The evaporation from the soil surface Es is calculated in two stages: (1) the constant rate stage in which Es is limited only by the supply of energy to the surface and (2) the falling rate stage in which water movement to the evaporating sites near the surface is controlled by the hydraulic properties of the soil. The evaporation from the plant surfaces Ep is predicted by using an empirical relation based on local data, which shows how Ep is related to Eo through the leaf area index. The model was used to obtain the total evaporation rate E = Es + Ep of a developing grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) canopy in central Texas. The results agreed well with values for E measured directly with a weighing lysimeter.

Abstract: Canopy temperatures were measured on durum wheat grown in six differentially irrigated plots. Soil water content was measured by using a neutron-scattering technique at two locations within each plot. Water contents, in 20-cm increments to 160 cm, were determined two to five times per week. Using a sliding cubic smoothing technique, we calculated daily water contents and thus water depletion rates for the entire growing season. Canopy temperatures were measured daily between 1330 and 1400 hours. Air temperatures measured at 150 cm above the soil surface were subtracted from the canopy temperatures to form the difference Tc – Ta. The summation of Tc – Ta over time yielded a factor termed the ‘stress degree day’ (SDD). The SDD concept shows promise as an indicator for determining the times and amounts of irrigations. An expression relating evapotranspiration (ET) to net radiation and Tc – Ta was simplified and tested by using ET measurements with a lysimeter. The expression was used to predict water use by wheat in the six plots. Predicted ET and measured water used agreed reasonably well. The expression may be useful in determining amounts of irrigation water to apply.

Abstract: Improved crop coefficients for various Pacific Northwest irrigated crops were developed for estimating crop evapotranspiration (ET) from estimates or measurements of reference ET. Reference ET was based on that for well watered, actively growing alfalfa with sufficient growth for near maximum ET in arid, irrigated regions. ET for the alfalfa reference crop and other crops was measured with sensitive weighing lysimeters at the field site near Kimberly, Idaho. The new crop coefficients are basal or minimal coefficients for conditions when soil evaporation is minimal but root-zone soil moisture is adequate. When combined with improved estimates of evaporation from wet soils, they should permit more accurate estimates of daily crop ET, more accurate irrigation scheduling, and more reliable estimates of crop water requirements. Curves were developed for alfalfa, potatoes, snap beans, sugarbeets, peas, sweet and field corn and winter and spring cereals.