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Determining placement criteria of moisture sensors through temporal stability analysis of soil water contents for a variable rate irrigation system

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Abstract

Developing placement criteria for soil moisture sensors is crucial in increasing the practical functionality of a variable rate irrigation (VRI) system. In this field study, the temporal stability pattern of soil water content was compared between VRI and uniform rate irrigation (URI) treatments during growing seasons of winter wheat and summer maize to determine the placement criteria of soil water sensors. The 1.64-ha experimental site located in a highly variable alluvial flood plain was divided into four management zones according to the available water holding capacity ranging from 152 to 205 mm within the 0.6 m soil profile. In each zone, two sub-zones were created to represent VRI and URI treatments. A temporal stability analysis of soil moisture was conducted by regularly measuring soil water contents at 62 locations in the field during the growing seasons. Results showed that the VRI management changed the overall similarity of soil moisture spatial patterns when crop water consumption was provided mainly by irrigation water rather than precipitation. In each management zone, every measuring position was a time-stable location with respect to the mean soil water content. Significant linear regressions were detected between the mean clay percentile in each management zone and the clay percentile representing the mean soil water content sites, and a nearly equivalent value of fitted equation coefficient was obtained for winter wheat (1.15) and summer maize (1.19). These results demonstrated that the temporal stability of soil water content spatial patterns still existed in each management zone with the VRI management, and the clay percentile supplied a priori identification for placement of soil moisture sensors.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFC0400104), the State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin (Grant No. 2016TS05), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51309251).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, China

    Weixia Zhao, Jiusheng Li, Rumiao Yang & Yanfeng Li

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  1. Weixia Zhao
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  2. Jiusheng Li
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  3. Rumiao Yang
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  4. Yanfeng Li
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Correspondence to Jiusheng Li.

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Zhao, W., Li, J., Yang, R. et al. Determining placement criteria of moisture sensors through temporal stability analysis of soil water contents for a variable rate irrigation system. Precision Agric 19, 648–665 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11119-017-9545-2

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