In this study, a novel fibre-optic technology (Active Distributed Temperature Sensing, ADTS) is used to continuously monitor soil moisture and temperature at the field scale at an unprecedented spatial resolution.
Academic Lead - Professor Stefan Krause
A fiber-optic cable was buried in the upper 0.5 m of soil in a 2 ha field recently planted with juvenile deciduous trees located adjacent to the BIFoR FACE facility.
Temperature and soil moisture are measured every 0.25 m along the cable providing a unique dataset for studying the variation of these parameters across the field scale.
The results collected over a period of years will provide unique insights into the spatio-temporal variation of these fundamental parameters and into the actual hydrological processes occurring in the soil during drying and wetting events.