The calibration of a high resolution gamma‐ray transmission system for measuring soil bulk density and an assessment of its field performance

Authors:
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Summary: The calibration of a high resolution gamma‐ray density probe and a simple experiment comparing the probe with an earlier, lower resolution version are described. An assessment is made of the performance of the probe in three experiments investigating compaction by tractor wheels, two of which were in the field and the third in an indoor soil tank. A linear calibration relationship was obtained, although the addition of a quadratic term improved the fit of the curve slightly. The probe was found to be much more accurate than the earlier version within 100 mm of the soil surface where treatment effects were largest and most numerous in the field experiments, and thin layers of high density could be detected. Over the 15 month period of the experiments, the stability of the system was found to be satisfactory.