1. An instrument or device used to measure the amount of water that percolates through soil and drains away, or to study water movement and solute transport in soil.
Usage: technical; used in soil science, hydrology, and environmental engineering

Examples

• The researcher installed a lysimeter in the field to monitor groundwater recharge rates.
• Lysimeters help scientists understand how pesticides move through different soil layers.
• The agricultural station uses lysimeters to measure water drainage from the test plots.
• By analyzing lysimeter data, hydrologists can predict contaminant transport in aquifers.
• The lysimeter experiment showed how much rainfall was retained versus drained from the soil.