Soil moisture is the quantity of water contained within the unsaturated zone of soil, typically expressed as volumetric water content or gravimetric water content, and is a central variable in hydrology, agronomy, and land–atmosphere interaction studies. It governs soil hydraulic conductivity, matric potential, and the partitioning of precipitation into infiltration, runoff, and evapotranspiration. Soil moisture strongly regulates plant water availability, microbial activity, and biogeochemical cycling, and is measured using in situ sensors (e.g., time-domain reflectometry, capacitance probes), lysimeters, or remotely sensed estimates from microwave and thermal observations. It is a key state variable in land surface models, drought monitoring systems, and climate and weather prediction frameworks.
As water supplies shrink and food demand grows, new interdisciplinary research from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln offers a practical way for farmers to manage irrigation more efficiently while protecting their bottom ...
Other
10 hours ago
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It's a well-established fact that forests and water are deeply connected. For decades, paired-watershed experiments—a scientific method for evaluating land-use impacts on water quantity or quality—have shown that when we ...
Environment
Apr 4, 2026
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Advanced technology can help farmers get to the root of a growing problem—overwatering in an era of increasing drought and water scarcity. A new UC Riverside system can map soil moisture tree by tree, so growers water only ...
Biotechnology
Apr 2, 2026
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Plants need water, light, and air to thrive. But when they transport water from the soil up to their leaves, they defy gravity. Scientists describe this astonishing phenomenon as "negative water potential," a form of negative ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Mar 23, 2026
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166
The soil beneath our feet is a huge carbon bank storing up to approximately three times more carbon than the entire atmosphere. That makes it a significant player in the future of our climate. If even a small fraction of ...
Soil is often perceived simply as "dirt," but in reality, it is a dynamic, living system that acts as Earth's natural sponge. Unfortunately, common agricultural practices—including deep plowing and the use of heavy machinery—can ...
Ecology
Mar 22, 2026
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436
The Amazon rainforest is famous for storing massive amounts of carbon in its trees and soils, helping regulate the global climate. Yet a paper published in New Phytologist shows that one of South America's largest carbon-storing ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 12, 2026
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For decades, scientists have relied on a chemical fingerprint inside water molecules to determine where plants get their moisture. The method shaped our understanding of drought resilience, groundwater use, and ecosystem ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 3, 2026
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Forest soils have an important role in protecting our climate: They remove large quantities of methane—a powerful greenhouse gas—from our atmosphere. Researchers from the University of Göttingen and the Baden-Württemberg ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 4, 2026
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230
Wetlands make up only about 6% of the land area but contain about 30% of the terrestrial organic carbon pool. Therefore, CO2 emissions from wetlands are central to the global climate balance. In Denmark, the plan is to flood ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 29, 2026
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