Time stability and spatial variability of soil-water storage in a loam soil

Fifty neutron probe access tube pipes were installed and the soil water storage (SWS) measured during 191 days, in order to evaluate temporal persistence of the soil water storage spatial pattern. The SWS showed a structure of variation in space, with the nugget effect corresponding to 20% of total variation and range of 16-m. These results showed that the structure of variation of this soil property should be considered on future sampling, although the time stability allow us to identify locations in the field to be measured to estimate the mean water content.