Capturing 3D Water Flow in Rooted Soil by Ultra-fast Neutron Tomography.

ABSTRACT: Water infiltration in soil is not only affected by the inherent heterogeneities of soil, but even more by the interaction with plant roots and their water uptake. Neutron tomography is a unique non-invasive 3D tool to visualize plant root systems together with the soil water distribution in situ. So far, acquisition times in the range of hours have been the major limitation for imaging 3D water dynamics. Implementing an alternative acquisition procedure we boosted the speed of acquisition capturing an entire tomogram within 10 s. This allows, for the first time, tracking of a water front ascending in a rooted soil column upon infiltration of deuterated water time-resolved in 3D. Image quality and resolution could be sustained to a level allowing for capturing the root system in high detail

SUBMITTER: Totzke C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5522441 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature