Subsurface soil moisture movement in the unsaturated zone plays a critical role in the replenishment of groundwater table. This comprehension can be vital for the terrain with lateritic soil followed by the charnockite bedrock system. The conventional techniques to determine the subsurface soil moisture and its movement is cumbersome owing to high cost, large scale time consumption, field drudgery and greater possibility of manual errors. Among many other modern technologies for the measurement of volumetric water content, capacitance-based moisture sensors are capable and less expensive, thus, making them highly suitable for the research scholars worldwide. The study involves the use of TEROS 12 moisture sensors. The capacitance-based sensor TEROS 12, equipped with advanced soil moisture technique curtails the constraints in the conventional technique of soil moisture assessment and can provide precise measurements if suitably calibrated for the site specific soils. The study involves a soil specific calibration of TEROS 12 moisture sensor which was performed for the laterite soil to incorporate the sensor with the automated soil moisture monitoring system. The reliability of the sensor TEROS 12 was assessed by comparing its moisture measurements with that of the gravimetric method. The calibration was performed for three TEROS 12 moisture sensors in order to monitor the interflow at three varying soil depths in the vadose zone. The R2 values obtained from the calibration of sensors at depths of 0-0.4 m, and 0.8-1.2 m were 0.996, 0.994 and 0.992 respectively. Further, during validation it was found that the new measurements coordinated with the gravimetric measurements to a greater extent and increased the preciseness as compared to that of uncalibrated values of moisture contents, thereby establishing TEROS 12 capacitance-based sensor as a reliable and cost effective moisture sensor.
A preliminary survey was conducted by transect method throughout the instructional farm area of the College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara and the soldier castes of termites were sampled from a unit area of 200 sq. m each from various crop environments. The collected samples were preserved and identified based on taxonomic keys with reference to their characteristics of head capsule, mandibles and pronotum. A total of nine genera under two families were identified; out of which seven genera viz., Odontotermes, Procapritermes, Dicuspiditermes, Homallotermes, Microtermes, Microcerotermes and Nasutitermes were under the family Termitidae and Heterotermes and Coptotermes were of the family Rhinotermitidae. Odontotermes was found to be the most dominant in all the crop environments accounting for about 62.03%. The least occuring was Coptotermes which constituted only 1.27%.
<p>Laterite terrain overlying the charnockite bedrock system exhibits greater lateral movement of water as compared to its vertical infiltration into the soil profile due to partial water block. Furthermore, the topographic conditions in such areas play a crucial role in the movement of soil water. The variation in the precipitation pattern, increasing population and urbanization has contributed in reducing the infiltration opportunity time for rainwater. The present study was carried out at Malappuram district of Kerala in India. Though, the study area receives an average annual rainfall of 3 m, yet experiences high baseline water stress during post monsoon season. The research study involves analysis of lateral flow from three different soil profile depths i.e. 0-0.4 m, 0.4-0.8 m and 0.8-1.2 m under two different water inducement techniques. Lateral flow monitoring was carried out in two different experimental set ups in two different sites under simulated rainfall conditions and line source of water application. Variation in the lateral flow was assessed using capacitance based sensors which were calibrated and installed at all the three respective soil profile depths. The study revealed that though the infiltration capacity of laterite soil is quite high but, the major portion of infiltrated water moved as lateral flow without contributing to the groundwater table. It was found that of the total water applied as simulated rainfall about, 10 % accounted as lateral flow from a soil profile depth of 1.2 m. During line source application of water, out of the total lateral flow recorded, the soil profile depths of 0-0.4 m, 0.4-0.8 m and 0.8-1.2 m contributed portions of 52.3 %, 43.78 % and 3.8 % as lateral flow. It was found from the study that the soil physical properties including bulk density, effective porosity and soil texture governed lateral flow in the study area. Thus, the research study emphasizes on enhancing preferential flow in vertical direction through deep rooted flora in the study area. &#160;</p>
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