A study was carried out under laboratory and field conditions to evaluate a type of soil sensor used to measure temperature and soil water matric potential. Due to gypsum solubility, porous media used to make the sensor, there was cross sectional area and volume decrease and sensor effective porosity increase in comparison with values obtained prior to the tests. Temperature average values obtained with the sensor were similar to the ones obtained with a reference thermometer having 0.1°C accuracy. Regarding to Delta T values, sensor response time was a little higher than 24 hours when saturated sensors were installed 5 cm deep inside an air dry silty clay loam. Under lab and field conditions observed, Delta T values had increased variability for the dry soil region in comparison with the wet soil region. There was no statistical difference (test F; 5%) between Delta T averages, obtained under field conditions with the heat dissipation sensor installed at 10 cm of depth, and soil water tension averages provided by the tensiometer and transformed to Delta T.
soil water content; matric potential; soil temperature
