• Comparison of Various EC Sensors for Monitoring Soil Temperature, Water Content, and EC, and Its Relation to Ion Contents in Agricultural Soils

  • Jin Hee Park·Jwakyung Sung*

  • 1Chungbuk National University, Department of Environmental and Biological Chemistry
    2Chungbuk National University, Department of Crop Science

  • 토양 온도, 수분, EC 모니터링을 위한 다양한 EC 센서 비교 및 농경지 토양에서 이온 함량과 EC의 상관관계 평가

  • 박진희1·성좌경2*

  • 1충북대학교 환경생명화학과
    2충북대학교 식물자원학과

  • This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Smart agriculture requires sensing systems which are fundamental for precision agriculture. Adequate and appropriate water and nutrient supply not only improves crop productivity but also benefit to environment. However, there is no available soil sensor to continuously monitor nutrient status in soil. Electrical conductivity (EC) of soil is affected by ion contents in soil and can be used to evaluate nutrient contents in soil. Comparison of various commercial EC sensors showed similar water content and EC values at water content less than 20%. Soil EC values measured by sensors decreased with decreasing soil water content and linearly correlated with soil water content. EC values measured by soil sensor were highly correlated with water soluble nutrient contents such as Ca, K, Mg and N in soil indicating that the soil EC sensor can be used for monitoring changes in plant available nutrients in soil.


Keywords: EC sensor, Nutrient, Nitrate, Water content, Smart farm

This Article

  • 2021; 26(6): 157-164

    Published on Dec 31, 2021

  • 10.7857/JSGE.2021.26.6.157
  • Received on Dec 6, 2021
  • Revised on Dec 9, 2021
  • Accepted on Dec 16, 2021

Correspondence to

  • Jwakyung Sung

  • Chungbuk National University, Department of Crop Science

  • E-mail: jksung73@chungbuk.ac.kr