Soil moisture
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Soil moisture is the amount of water present in the soil.
Gaps between soil particles are called pore spaces or voids. These voids contain various amounts of either water or air. Soil moisture content can be expressed in different basis:
- Gravimetric: the mass of water/mass of solid material
- Volumetric: the volume of soil/total porosity
The amount of void space within a soil depends on the distribution of particle sizes, and is quantified by soil porosity.
Soil moisture is more generally considered within the context of hydrology, where it represents the immediate store of infiltrating rainfall, before it either evapotranspires or contributes to groundwater recharge.