ekS - Instytut Agrofizyki im. Bohdana Dobrzańskiego PAN w Lublinie ...

1. STATUS OF WATER AS AN SIGNIFICANT ISSUE OF AGROPHYSICS
Agrophysics is a branch of science created from the need to insight into the
physical elements of biological plant environment deciding about the process of
photosynthesis (light, heat, water), and indirectly the yield. Implementation of the
appropriate physical tools and methods of interpretation makes agrophysics an
original and interdisciplinary science (like geophysics, biophysics and others,
dealing with physical aspects of problems of appropriate scientific fields). The
subjects of research are physical processes in the soil-plant-atmosphere
continuum and techniques to control them.
The practical application of agrophysics is the prediction of the consequences
of the physical processes and the control of factors deciding about them having in
mind the optimisation of agricultural production. The production of biomass is
evaluated on the base of its quantity and quality and it depends on the physical
factors that cannot be fully controlled yet. Therefore, there is the need to enlarge
the traditional area of agrophysical subjects on the physical processes involved in
the formation of agricultural material properties (Gliński [34], Walczak and
Sławiński [98]).
The key subject of agrophysics is the status of water because each analysed
phenomenon depends on it (ie water quantity, potential, salinity, oxygenation and
temperature).
The interaction of processes in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum and their
influence on the plant production efficiency form the criteria of research subjects’
selection. The mathematical interpretation of research results, that is adequate for
physics, enable to come to formalized conclusions, necessary for mathematical
modelling and therefore the prediction of discussed processes and their
consequences.
1.1. Water status monitoring
Water status monitoring defined as the spatial and temporal registration of the
water properties that decide about the processes under consideration, is the basic
instrument in natural research (in industrial processes, too). It is especially
important in agrophysics because each process in the agrophysical research area
depends on water properties present in the analysed system.
Increasing demands of water management result in the continuous
development of its tools. One of the most important, beside the simulation models
of water balance (Walczak and Sławiński [97]), is monitoring of water status in
porous materials defined as a space-temporal recording of the water properties
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