A software for the calculation of unsaturated soil hydraulic conductivity K(q) is presented for commonly used methods found in the literature, based on field experiments in which a soil profile is submitted to water infiltration followed by internal drainage. The software is available at: dourado@esalq.usp.br.

The time-domain reflectometry (TDR) technique has been one of the most used techniques to determine soil volumetric water content (q) owing to some favorable characteristics such as high precision, non-ionizing radiation and little influence of soil salinity, bulk density and texture. However, most of the TDR equipment and probes available do not allow a detailed measurement along the soil profile, as for instance the neutron probe does. For conventional TDR probes holes or trenches must be opened in the soil […]

The study aimed at evaluating of calibration models for two kinds of TDR waveguides used with Trase System and TDR 100 equipments linked to the cable tester or the multiplexer. Disturbed samples of three soils were packed in PVC columns and, after soil saturation, two TDR waveguides of three rods with capacitor and with resistor were inserted into the soil columns. The waveguides were connected to two TDR equipments (Trase System and TDR 100), directly to the cable tester or […]

In the tropical soil environment, raindrop impact is capable of disrupting natural soil aggregation and porosity, thus influencing the amount of infiltrated water and its redistribution. Under such conditions, a vegetation cover of weeds cannot be viewed simply as a crop competitor. This research project was designed to examine, under field conditions, the changes of soil properties, namely soil water content, structure and sealing, resulting from different types of weed management, with the aim of contributing to the establishment of […]