Description

In the scientific evaluation of experimental studies on the degradation of substances in soil, the moisture content of the soil is very important. A soil that is too dry or too wet can negatively influence the activity of the microbial population. Soil moisture content is thus an important parameter, but is often not reported. In those cases, it can be estimated by means of a number of basic parameters from the study and external moisture characteristics for a given soil type. This report presents a method to perform this verification. The basis for the calculations are two collections of moisture characteristics, determined on a large number of Dutch and other European soils. In the presented methodology, a moisture characteristic from one of the two collections is selected on the basis of the texture classification of the test soil. Different verification methods for moisture content are offered, depending on the available information. The outcome of the calculations can be used in the validity assessment of the experiment. The calculations presented in the report can be performed with two spreadsheets that can be downloaded from the RIVM website Risicos van stoffen (http://www.rivm.nl/rvs/).<br>