Empirical model of a vertisol evaporation as tool for management of soil practicability using portable lysimetric station under arid land context.

Soil compaction caused by traffic is commonly considered as one of the major's problems in agriculture. Moisture content has a significant effect on amplifying soil compaction. This study aims to approach evaporation trend of a vertisol (40.47% clay, 39.30% loam and 20.23% sand) having an organic matter content of 1.5% in order to manage timing of its plasticity as a determinant factor inducing compaction created by the traffic of machines. A portable lysimetric measurement system was developed to evaluate soil evaporation trend. An empirical soil evaporation equation was developed using three measurement campaigns according to different temperature and irradiance behaviors. Soil moisture content was evaluated with two sensors using conductivity and matric potential methods. Data were acquired using an Arduino UNO platform. Climatic data obtained from a meteorological station was used for computing evapotranspiration using Penman-Monteith model as reference for evaluation of the evaporation equation output. According to different climatic behaviors, the rate of vertisol evaporation showed a decrease in moisture content in three campaigns that have two repetitions (2 repetitions/3 campaigns). In the first one (C1), the soil moisture content arranged from 46% to 8% and from 43% to 8%. In the C2 the soil moisture varied from 47% to 7% and from 49% to 6%. Similarly, it changed from 47% to 6% and from 46% to 9% in the third campaign (C3). The occurrence of plasticity interval was between the 4th and the 11th day in the first campaign, the 6th and the 15th day in the second campaign and between the 10th and the 22th in the third campaign. Finally, compared with simulated results developed by an equation in Matlab Simulink, an important correlation has been shown. As a conclusion, we can predict plasticity limits by using soil water content measurements and climatic data (Temperature and Irradiance). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]