Evaluation of sensitivity and setting of the MACRO 5.2. model on direct lysimeter studies of leachate

Abstract

The water assembly of the MACRO model, making allowance regarding the double porosity of soils, was parameterized according to experimental laboratory data and tested according to the results of studying the water regime of sod-podzolic middle loamy soils of large lysimeters of MSU. Testing of pesticide migration models is necessary to improve forecast accuracy and justify their use. The analysis of the sensitivity, estimated from the data on the lysimetric runoff at the lower point (1.5 m) of the soil, showed that the WRC parameters are the main physical support of the models, which sets the forecast accuracy. These are the parameters that must be used to customize the model. The MACRO model has showed itself better at describing lysimetric runoff during the growing season by taking into account the fast flows along macropores and fissures that occur during periods of intense precipitation in the model than the models previously used.

A low-cost simple lysimeter soil retriever design for retrieving soil from small lysimeters

“…The lysimeter is an instrumented vessel containing a soil column and is the basis of the standard method for estimating crop evapotranspiration (Howell et al 1995, Huang et al 2020. It is also used in a wide range of agricultural and environmental studies including the movement of chemicals in the vadose zone (Pütz et al 2018, Belik et al 2021, measuring hydrological components (Brown et al 2021), movement of microbes in soil (Jiang et al 2010), plant-soil interactions (Portela et al 2024) and investigations into environmental pollution (Goss et al 2010). Lysimeters display a wide range of shapes and dimensions, encompassing simple soil-filled buckets as well as expansive containers accommodating trees, reflecting the diversity in their design and functionality (Kumar et al 2022).…”