Lysimeters



This is a photograph of an open pit containing partially installed zero-tension lysimeters. Researchers dig a large whole in the ground and install lysimeter cups into the uphill side of the pit, as shown here.

Eventually, all the tubing is connected and the pit is filled back in. When it rains, water filters through the soil (uphill of the pit), enters the cup, and travels through a tube (dotted line) to a buried (barely visible) "reservoir," which collects the sample.

Approximately once a month technicians visit these sites and, using a hand pump, empty the reservoirs using the "sampling tube." The end of the sampling tube is the only part of the lysimeter that is above ground.


[Back to Glossary | home | top ]