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