
A field lysimeter (from Greek λύσις (loosening) and the suffix ''-meter'') is a cylindrical container filled with
soil
Soil, also commonly referred to as earth, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, water, and organisms that together support the life of plants and soil organisms. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from ''soil'' by re ...
, which can be used to study the transport of
water
Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...
and material through the soil. This type of lysimeter can be equipped with different measuring probes at different depths (e.g., soil temperature,
tensiometer
Tensiometer may refer to one of a number of devices. The two most common are:
* Tensiometer (surface tension) an instrument used to measure the surface tension of liquids
* Tensiometer (soil science) an instrument to determine matric water p ...
for measuring
water tension). The soil contained in the field lysimeter can either be collected as a
monolith
A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive stone or rock, such as some mountains. Erosion usually exposes the geological formations, which are often made of very hard and solid igneous or metamorphic rock. Some monolit ...
(i.e., in one piece) or be reconstructed from the different layers present at the sampling site. Most lysimeters contain an opening at the bottom allowing the
leachate
A leachate is any liquid that, in the course of passing through matter, extracts soluble or suspended solids, or any other component of the material through which it has passed.
Leachate is a widely used term in the environmental sciences wh ...
to be collected and analyzed over time.
Lysimeters can be used to measure the amount of actual
evapotranspiration
Evapotranspiration (ET) refers to the combined processes which move water from the Earth's surface (open water and ice surfaces, bare soil and vegetation) into the Atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere. It covers both water evaporation (movement of w ...
which is released by
plants
Plants are the eukaryotes that form the kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria to produce sugars f ...
(usually
crops
A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. In other words, a crop is a plant or plant product that is grown for a specific purpose such as food, fibre, or fuel.
When plants of the same species a ...
or
trees
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only p ...
). By recording the amount of
precipitation
In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...
that an area receives and the amount lost through the soil, the amount of water lost to evapotranspiration can be
calculated. There are multiple types of lysimeters, with each designed for specific purposes; the choice of lysimeter depends on project objectives, parameters to be measured, and the environmental conditions under investigation. Some types of lysimeters include:
*
Weighing Lysimeters
** Principle: Measures changes in the weight of the lysimeter to determine water balance
** Operation: The lysimeter is placed on a scale and changes in weight are recorded over time, allowing for the calculation of
evaporation
Evaporation is a type of vaporization that occurs on the Interface (chemistry), surface of a liquid as it changes into the gas phase. A high concentration of the evaporating substance in the surrounding gas significantly slows down evapora ...
,
transpiration
Transpiration is the process of water movement through a plant and its evaporation from aerial parts, such as leaves, stems and flowers. It is a passive process that requires no energy expense by the plant. Transpiration also cools plants, c ...
, and drainage
*
Suction
Suction is the day-to-day term for the movement of gases or liquids along a pressure gradient with the implication that the movement occurs because the lower pressure pulls the gas or liquid. However, the forces acting in this case do not orig ...
Lysimeters
** Principle: Used negative pressure (suction) to extract soil water for analysis
** Operation: A
porous
Porosity or void fraction is a measure of the void (i.e. "empty") spaces in a material, and is a fraction of the volume of voids over the total volume, between 0 and 1, or as a percentage between 0% and 100%. Strictly speaking, some tests measure ...
cup is buried in the soil and a vacuum is applied to extract water from the surrounding soil; collected water can be analyzed for nutrients, contaminants, or other parameters
*
Drainage
Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils can prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditions that harm root gro ...
Lysimeters
** Principle: Collects water that drains through the soil profile
** Operation: These lysimeters have a collection system to capture water that moved through the soil; collected water is analyzed to study leaching and nutrient transport
* Field Lysimeters
** Principle: Installed directly in the field to simulate natural soil-plant interaction
** Operation: The system mimics natural conditions, allowing researchers to study the impact of various factors on soil water movement,
nutrient cycling
A nutrient cycle (or ecological recycling) is the movement and exchange of inorganic and organic matter back into the production of matter. Energy flow is a unidirectional and noncyclic pathway, whereas the movement of mineral nutrients is cyc ...
, and plant growth; field lysimeters can be installed with weighted systems to determine water balance
*
Greenhouse
A greenhouse is a structure that is designed to regulate the temperature and humidity of the environment inside. There are different types of greenhouses, but they all have large areas covered with transparent materials that let sunlight pass an ...
Lysimeters
** Principle: Similar to field lysimeters but installed in controlled greenhouse environments
** Operation: A controlled setting is provided to studying soil-water interactions, allowing researchers to manipulate environmental conditions and monitor plan responses
* Zero Tension Lysimeters
** Principle: Measured drainage under zero tension conditions
** Operation: The system is designed to collect water from the soil without the application of suction, allowing researchers to study natural drainage patterns
*
Capillary
A capillary is a small blood vessel, from 5 to 10 micrometres in diameter, and is part of the microcirculation system. Capillaries are microvessels and the smallest blood vessels in the body. They are composed of only the tunica intima (the inn ...
Lysimeters
** Principle: Utilizes
capillary action
Capillary action (sometimes called capillarity, capillary motion, capillary rise, capillary effect, or wicking) is the process of a liquid flowing in a narrow space without the assistance of external forces like Gravitation, gravity.
The effe ...
to collect soil water
** Operation: Capillary forces draw water into the lysimeter; this type of lysimeter is often used to study water movement in the vadose zone (above the water table)
* Pressure plate lysimeters
** Principle: Measured soil water retention characteristics
** Operation: Pressure is applied to the soil to extract water at different tension settings, this helps to determine the soil's ability to retain water
The list above is not comprehensive; there are many types of lysimeters and many ways that lysimetry can be used to understand soil-
porewater relationships.
In the rest of this article, "lysimeter" refers to a field lysimeter for understanding interaction between soil-plant interactions.
General usage

A lysimeter is most accurate when
vegetation
Vegetation is an assemblage of plants and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular Taxon, taxa, life forms, structure, Spatial ecology, spatial extent, or any other specific Botany, botanic ...
is grown in a large
soil tank which allows the rainfall input and water lost through the soil to be easily calculated. The amount of water lost by
evapotranspiration
Evapotranspiration (ET) refers to the combined processes which move water from the Earth's surface (open water and ice surfaces, bare soil and vegetation) into the Atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere. It covers both water evaporation (movement of w ...
can be worked out by calculating the difference between the weight before and after the
precipitation
In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...
input.
For
farm
A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...
crops, a lysimeter can represent field conditions well since the device is installed and used outside the laboratory. A weighing lysimeter, for example, reveals the amount of water crops use by constantly weighing a huge block of soil in a field to detect losses of soil moisture (as well as any gains from precipitation). An example of their use is in the development of new
xerophytic
A xerophyte () is a species of plant that has adaptations to survive in an environment with little liquid water. Examples of xerophytes include cactus, cacti, pineapple and some gymnosperm plants. The morphology (biology), morphology and physiology ...
apple tree
cultivars
A cultivar is a kind of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and which retains those traits when propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue cult ...
in order to adapt to changing climate patterns of reduced rainfall in traditional apple growing regions.

The
University of Arizona's Biosphere 2 built the world's largest weighing lysimeters using a mixture of thirty 220,000 and 333,000 lb-capacity (ca. 100,000 and 150,000 kg) column load cells from
Honeywell, Inc. as part of its Landscape Evolution Observatory project.
Use in whole plant physiological phenotyping systems
To date,
physiology
Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...
-based, high-throughput
phenotyping
In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology (physical form and structure), its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological properties ...
systems (also known as plant functional phenotyping systems), which, used in combination with
soil–plant–atmosphere continuum (SPAC) measurements and fitting models of plant responses to continuous and fluctuating environmental conditions, should be further investigated in order to serve as a phenotyping tool to better understand and characterize plant stress response.
In these systems (known also as gravimetric system), plants are placed on weighing lysimeters that measure changes in pot weight at a high frequency. This data is then combined with measurements of environmental parameters in the greenhouse, including radiation, humidity and temperature, as well as soil water conditions. Using pre-measured data including soil weight and initial plant weight, a great deal of phenotypic data can be extracted including data on
stomatal conductance
Stomatal conductance, usually measured in mmol m−2 s−1 by a porometer, estimates the rate of gas exchange (i.e., carbon dioxide uptake) and transpiration (i.e., water loss as water vapor) through the leaf stomata as determined by the degree of ...
, growth rates,
transpiration
Transpiration is the process of water movement through a plant and its evaporation from aerial parts, such as leaves, stems and flowers. It is a passive process that requires no energy expense by the plant. Transpiration also cools plants, c ...
and soil water content and plant dynamic behaviour such as the critical ɵ point, which is the soil water content at which plants start to respond to stress by reducing their stomatal conductance.
The Faculty of Agriculture in the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...
owns one of the most advanced functional phenotyping system, with more than 500 units screened simultaneously.
Railway lysimeter
Lysimeters can also be used to study degradation patterns of substances in specific types of soils. For example, lysimeters can be filled with material from railways. For instance, in
Wädenswil
Wädenswil (locally often called ''Wättischwiil'', ''Wädischwiil'' or ''Wädi'') is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality located in the district of Horgen (district), Horgen in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Zürich (canton), Z� ...
,
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
, 10 lysimeters are used to study the degradation of
herbicides
Herbicides (, ), also commonly known as weed killers, are substances used to control undesired plants, also known as weeds.EPA. February 201Pesticides Industry. Sales and Usage 2006 and 2007: Market Estimates. Summary in press releasMain page f ...
in the soil of railway tracks. By filling the lysimeters with material from different railway tracks, researchers are able to create conditions that mimic the conditions found in these specific environments.
History
In 1875
Edward Lewis Sturtevant
Edward Lewis Sturtevant (January 23, 1842 – July 30, 1898) was an American agronomist and botanist who wrote ''Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World.'' An enormously prolific author, he was considered one of the giants of American agricultura ...
, a
botanist
Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...
from
Massachusetts
Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
, built the first lysimeter in the United States.
References
Further reading
*
{{Authority control
Measuring instruments
Plant physiology
Agrometeorology