What is the standard procedure for measuring soil water content? If we want to measure soil moisture, why are we drying the soil samples?
In order to measure soil moisture we need to know the mass of the soil both when it is wet and dry. Soil moisture is typically measured by comparing the mass of the dry soil with the mass of the wet soil. The difference in mass before and after drying is the mass of soil water that was present in the soil sample at the time of data collection. The ratio of the mass of water to the mass of dry is known as the soil water content. This method is called the gravimetric method, which is the standard scientific procedure for measuring soil water content.
