About this Agricultural and Biological Sciences article

The Wageningen Rhizolab — a facility to study soil-root-shoot-atmosphere interactions in crops: I. Description of main functions by S. C. Van de Geijn; J. Vos; J. Groenwold; J. Goudriaan; P. A. Leffelaar is a Agricultural and Biological Sciences article available to read on EtoBox.

A research facility is described for the integrated study of soil-root-shoot-atmosphere relationships in crops. The Wageningen Rhizolab has been in use since 1990, and consists of two rows, each with eight below-ground compartments aligned along a corridor. A rain shelter automatically covers the experimental area at the start of rainfall. Compartments are 125 cm x 125 cm and 200 cm deep. Each compartment has a separate drip irrigation system. Crop canopy photosynthesis, respiration, and transpiration can be measured simultaneously and continuously on four out of eight compartments at a time. Each compartment can be filled with a selected soil material (repacked soil) and is accessible from the corridor over its full depth. Multiple sensors for measuring soil moisture status, electrical conductivity, temperature, soil respiration, trace gases and oxygen are installed in spatial patterns in accordance with the requirements of the experiments. Sensors are connected to control and data-acquisition devices. Likewise, provisions have been made to sample manually the soil solution and soil atmosphere. Root observation tubes (minirhizotrons) are installed horizontally at depth intervals r

Author

S. C. Van de Geijn; J. Vos; J. Groenwold; J. Goudriaan; P. A. Leffelaar

Publisher

Springer; Springer-Verlag; Kluwer Academic Publishers; Springer Science and Business Media LLC; Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration Inc. (ISSN 0032-079X)

Published

1994

Language

EN

Field

Agricultural and Biological Sciences (Life Sciences)