Lysimeters

Lysimeters are buried containers of soil equipped with a weighing device and drainage system to measure evaporatranspiration and percolation. Lysimeters aim to represent existing soil, vegetation, and climatic conditions to improve the accuracy of measurements of physical processes (Hillel, 1998).

The underground lysimeter facility, at Boulder City, houses 3 round lysimeters and 1 square lysimeter in separate rooms and accessed through a central tunnel. Each lysimeter weighs 45,000 Kg and are weighed on a separate balance with a resolution of +/- 200 g. Lysimeters will be equipped with remote loggers and other data acquisition systems and real-time data will be posted online for research investigators.