Derivation and Validation of Pedotransfer Functions for Point Estimation of Soil Moisture in Sandy to Clayey Soil Texture.

Abstract

Soil water retention at field capacity and permanent wilting point are important for recognizing plant available water potential and plant water stress in specific soil type. Using the relations between soil moisture contents, soil particles and bulk density, the pedotransfer functions (PTFs) were developed and simulated for soil moisture estimation at 0.033 and 1.5 MPa pressure head in fifty nine soil samples. Based on t-test, the developed PTFs were screened. Performance of the screened PTFs was evaluated by testing through R2 – statistics, residual error values, coefficient of residual mass and model efficiency estimate. These established PTFs provides useful alternative to simulate point soil moisture content values from easily measurable relevant soil parameters.