Evaluating the transferability of measurements from simple constructed non weighable gravitation lysimeters to predict the water regime on field scale—a case study

The transfer of lysimeter‐based water balances to field scale is still a challenge, whereby the reliability of measured data from non‐weighable gravitation lysimeters (NWGL) is more questioned than the transferability of data from more modern lysimeter devices. The hypothesis of this study was to predict the water regime of a drained arable field (81 ha) based on measurement results of three neighboring (distance of 20 km northern Altmark region Saxony‐Anhalt, Germany) NWGL (surface area of 1 m², depth of 1.25 m) for three hydrological years (HY) from 11/1/2012 to 10/31/2015. For the first two HY, manually collected monthly outflow rates from the NWGL were comparable to registered (data logger) drain rates of the field. But NWGL outflow was underestimated as compared to field drainage in the third HY. This deficit in the lysimeter water balance was caused by heavy rain events in summer 2014 in combination with wind and interception by the crop canopy (Zea maize). Precipitation did not match the NWGL surface whereas this canopy effect did not play a role at the field site. Thus, further numerical simulations of the soil water flow with the HYDRUS 1D/2D‐software package, which were based only on input data determined at the NWGL (stand precipitation, potential evaporation/ transpiration) without taking into account the canopy effect, described registered outflow of the field adequately for the whole observation period. But determining precipitation matching the NWGL surface, which was not registered due to the missing weighing mechanism, is absolutely required to interpret deviating measured outflow rates.