REVIEW

A Review of Lysimeter Studies and Experiments by Considering Agricultural Production

Lysimeters have been used to obtain accurate information for developing calibrating, and validating crop evapotranspiration and crop coefficients for many plants and crops. Lysimeters are also an unique equipment for studying the transport of solutes when saline waters are used, and therefore, for assessing alkalization and salinization hazards. Three main types of lysimeters are used: constatnt water-table lysimeters, drainage lysimeters, and weighing lysimeters. The weighing lysimeters provide scientist the basic information for research related to the evapotranspiration, and they are commonly divided into two types, continuous weighing and intermittent weighing. Lysimeters are foremost devices, typically tanks or containers, that define a specific boundary to contain soil water and permit measurement of either the soil-water balance or the volume of water percolating vertically and its quality. The limitations are expense which depends on design, variable experimental conditions such as climatic/environmental factors which are usually not controlled, the spatial variability is normally less, they are not appropriate for every plant species and even every soil type. The main goal of lysimeter is defining the crop coefficient (Kc) which used to convert Etr to equivalent crop ET (Etc) values, and determining agronomical parameters of crops which are planted on the field of lysimeter. All weather data like air temperature, humidity, solar radiation, and potential evaporation should be obtained onsite, and the frequency and time of measurements should be at least daily. For crop products, the management such as fertilization, sowing tillage, seed bed preparation, and harvest of the lysimeter including its surrounding area is carried out on the basis of good agricultural practice. it may be required to complement natural precipitation by irrigation. The main purpose of this literature review is to give a brief summary about lysimeters, and survey the impacts of lysimeter studies and crops production. The information provides is obtained from randomized control experiments, review articles, and analytical studies and observations which were gathered from numerous literature sources such as Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar,and Science Direct.