Should you be measuring water content or water potential?
Like all good scientific questions, the answer is, “It depends.” In some applications, water content measurements will tell you everything you need to know, in others, water potential will get to the root of the issue. Still others require measuring both. So how do you make sure you’re making the measurements you need? In this episode, METER research scientist, Leo Rivera and METER’s ecology and plant physiology specialist, Chris Chambers discuss what you need to know to choose the right measurements.
Notes
Chris Chambers operates as the Environment Support Manager and has been the Soil Moisture Sensor Product Manager for many years at METER Group. He specializes in ecology and plant physiology and has 15 years of experience helping researchers measure the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum.
Leo Rivera operates as a research scientist and Director of Scientific Outreach at METER Group. He earned his undergraduate and master’s degree in soil science at Texas A&M University where his research focused on the impacts of land use and landscape on soil hydraulic properties. He also helped develop an infiltration system for measuring hydraulic conductivity used by the NRCS in Texas. Currently, Leo leads METER’s collaborative research efforts, and focuses on application development in hydrology instrumentation, including the SATURO infiltrometer and the HYPROP. He also works in R&D to explore new instrumentation for water and nutrient movement in the soil.
The views and opinions expressed in the podcast and on this posting are those of the individual speakers or authors and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions held by METER.
25 years ago Drs John Norman and Gaylon Campbell co-authored An Introduction to Environmental Biophysics. Their ability to work across disciplinary lines brought new understanding to countless scientists and taught us how to conduct better research through collaboration.
Champions of water potential, Drs. Kim Novick and Jessica Guo, team up to discuss the vital role water potential measurement plays in both plant and soil sciences and the work they are doing to establish the first-of-its-kind nationwide water potential network.
Dr. Dedrick Davis is an Assistant Professor in Soil Physics at Alabama A&M University. He obtained his PhD in Soil Science and Environmental Science from Iowa State University,and his teaching expertise is in soil physics and soil hydrology.