“…Specially designed microdepots were used to physically ripen (consolidate) three different sediments (ROSL, WOGR, LERI) to different extents. This laboratory ripening of the sediments, which resulted in disc‐shaped pellets with a diameter of approximately 45 mm and a height of approximately 20 mm, was described extensively in an earlier study [15]. In the present study, the matrix potential (ψ m ), a measure to quantify the moisture condition of ripening sediments, of the water in the pellets was adjusted to six different values: ψ m = −100, −333, −1,000, −2,000, −16,000, and — 1,000,000 hPa (all in triplicate).…”