Comparison of Water intake of Soil during Peak Dry and Peak Rainy Seasons using Automated Soil Infiltration Measuring Device

Abstract

The amount of water absorbed by the soil is very important to plant growth and in the transportation of nutrients during Photosynthesis This water intake of the soil at a particular time varies from season to season and differ with soil types. The seasons’ variation affects plant growth either by over flooding or insufficient water intake on the  soil. when the soil water intake is not control or check, it can cause over flooding which have adverse effect on the environment and plant nutrients. Researchers have used various methods such as gravitational, sprinkle, single ring and double ring to determine infiltration. The gravitational method is the mass  collection of the soil into an evaporating dish and heating to dryness. This can cause erosion on the earth‘s surface and  damage of the micro-organisms present in the soil during heating. Also, the single and double rings method have adverse effect on compacting the soil when driving the ring into the ground. In this regard, the soil properties are uttered, therefore the data obtained from infiltration measurement is inaccurate and prone to error. Hence, the percolation tube was employed to pound water into the soil in this research paper work.  This percolation tube system does not require any force that will affect the soil particles and it allows gradual movement of water  when inserted on the ground. The device is made up of Sensor, percolation material, a cylindrical tube, Arduino Microcontroller and SD-Card. The  results showed that the month of January which is the peak dry season have a decay value of 0.58 compare to the month of July with a decay value of 0.48 for peak rainy season. The data obtained from the device was in agreement with Horton’s equation.