Researchers from the Institute for Soil Sciences at the HUN-REN Centre for Agricultural Research participated in a model development work supervised by the Center for Agricultural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Hebei). The established two-phase permittivity model has potential to non-intrusively establish root volume and depth distribution via high-frequency soil electrical capacitance measurement. The model was experimentally validated involving maize and wheat plants. The main findings were published in the journal “Geoderma” in open access form.

Gu H, Cseresnyés I, Butnor JR, Li B, Sun H, Zhang X, Lu Y, Liu X (2024): Advancing noninvasive and nondestructive root phenotyping techniques: A two-phase permittivity model for accurate estimation of root volume. Geoderma 442: 116773. doi:10.1016/j.geoderma.2024.116773