New findings from Chinese Academy of Science in the area of agriculture and soil science described.

"The double-ring infiltrometer is widely used to measure soil saturated hydraulic conductivity in the field. Both the inner ring size and outer ring size (two factors in the buffer index) of an infiltrometer affect the measurements of saturated hydraulic conductivity," researchers in Beijing, People's Republic of China report.

"Few systematic studies have been conducted to investigate the combined effects of the inner and outer ring sizes of a double-ring infiltrometer on the measurements of field saturated hydraulic conductivity. A total of 7224 numerical simulations were conducted to investigate the optimum combination of inner and outer ring sizes for reliable saturated …