Construção, calibração e análise de funcionamento de lisímetros de pesagem cultivados com cana-de-açúcar (Saccharum spp.

Abstract

The weighing lysimeters are used like a standard tool on agricultural crops water losses, because such equipments directly measure the agronomic crops evapotranspiration which cover or not fully the soil. This work aimed to build, calibrate and analyze the functioning of two weighing lysimiters with an area of 2,7 m2, installed in Coruripe plant, on the south coast of Alagoas. Each build consisted in a internal cavity in galvanized steel installed above a masonry structure (internal cavity) with walls 20 cm thick. On this structure were installed two bases of angles welded and reinforced with rods in the cross direction for setting the 3 loading cells. After this procedure the lysimeters were filled with soil and interconnected to the datallog. The calibration of the system was obtained with the addition and removal of mass-pattern previously known. The analysis of operation was carried out using three forms for obtaining the evapotranspiration, The first ETc1 - difference in mass of the whole soil-box at the beginning of the day (0 h) and the mass obtained at the end of the day (24 h) was considered as the standard as Champeche (2002); The second ETc2 - consists of the sum of all the mass differences calculated in each interval of integration over a day, discounting only the values of precipitation and irrigation; The third ETc3 - difference in mass of the whole soil-box of the period (06:00 am the 7:30 pm - hours). On the basis of the results, it was found that the lysimeters constructed showed a good performance, detecting changes in mass over a day, including days with precipitation. The lysimeters were a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.9962 and 0.9999 for calibration, who are both suitable for the determination of the evapotranspiration. The form for the determination of the evapotranspiration ETc2, sum of the difference in mass throughout the entire day, presented an excellent coefficient of determination when compared with the difference in masses at the end of the day (ETc1), which can be used to determine evapotranspiration. The evapotranspiration of sugar-cane determined in the final stages of its intermediate cycle obtained by standard form ETc1 values were lower than that estimated by ETo-PM.