%0 Journal Article
%A Herrmann, Paulo Sergio de Paul
%A Sydoruk, Viktor
%A Marques Porto, Felipe Nieves
%T Microwave Transmittance Technique Using Microstrip Patch Antennas, as a Non-Invasive Tool to Determine Soil Moisture in Rhizoboxes
%J Sensors
%V 20
%N 4
%@ 1424-8220
%C Basel
%I MDPI
%M FZJ-2021-00654
%P 1166
%D 2020
%X Investigating the growth behavior of plant root systems as a function of soil water isconsidered an important information for the study of root physiology. A non-invasive tool based onelectromagnetic wave transmittance in the microwave frequency range, operating close to 4.8 GHz,was developed using microstrip patch antennas to determine the volumetric moisture of soil inrhizoboxes. Antennas were placed on both sides of the rhizobox and, using a vector networkanalyzer, measured the S parameters. The dispersion parameter S<sub>21</sub> (dB) was also used to show theeffect of different soil types and temperature on the measurement. In addition, system sensitivity,reproducibility and repeatability were evaluated. The quantitative results of the soil moisture,measured in rhizoboxes, presented in this paper, demonstrate that the microwave technique usingmicrostrip patch antennas is a reliable, non-invasive and accurate system, and has shown potentiallypromising applications for measurement of rhizobox-based root phenotyping.
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)16
%9 Journal Article
%$ 32093329
%U <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000522448600217
%R 10.3390/s20041166
%U https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/890060