Low-cost microprocessed instrument for evaluating soil temperature profile

This paper describes a low-cost microprocessed instrument for iii situ eval uating soil temperature profile ranging from -20.0 degreesC to 99.9 degrees C, and recording soil temperature data at eight depths from 2 to 128 cm. Of great importance in agriculture, soil temperature affects plant growth dir ectly, and nutrient uptake as well as indirectly in soil water and gas flow , soil structure and nutrient availability. The developed instrument has po tential applications in the soil science, when temperature monitoring is re quired. Results show that the instrument with its individual sensors guaran tees +/-0.25 degreesC accuracy and 0.1 degreesC resolution, making possible localized management changes within decision support systems. The instrume nt, based on complementary metal oxide semiconductor devices as well as the rmocouples, operates in either automatic or non-automatic mode.