Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: . The forest floor (FF) is dominated by plant litter and its decomposition products, thereby it differs significantly from the mineral soil. Because of its wider range of pore sizes and overall high porosity, it has a large capacity to retain water and thus plays an important role in redistributing water to the mineral soil beneath. Until now most studies have focused on the behaviour of the organic layer when wetted and dried in a laboratory setting. Alternatively, field fresh samples were collected to determine the water storage potential. We present a novel low-cost grid-lysimeter designed specifically for the FF, but also suitable for other organic soil layers. It can continuously measure all water balance components of the FF. The lysimeter detects precipitation with an accuracy of 0.03 mm outperforming most rain gauges. The developed setup allows for further customization of in-situ water quality measurements. This technical note describes the setup of the lysimeter and presents performance metrics from laboratory results and initial field data.
Authors: Heinke Paulsen, Markus Weiler
Institution: University of Freiburg
Language: English
Topic: Soil and Unsaturated Flow
Subfield: Civil and Structural Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,725
OpenAlex ID: W4410758901