Describing moisture levels

[Otterwoman]

I wonder if we have already a good way to describe moisture levels of terrestrial tanks. I mean standard terms. Like, say, marshy (pools of water with areas of wet dirt sticking out), less marshy (no pools, but you could squeeze water out), wet soil (wet but you couldn't squeeze water out), drier moist (mostly wet soil but some areas where the soil is dry enough to be a lighter color). Any ideas/suggestions? I have pictures here of what I'm talking about.
1- marshy marshy w/ pooling
2- less marshy marshy
3- wet wet
4- drier moist damp

I don't like these terms though, except for 'marshy.'

 

[monkeyfrogman28]

I like all the terms but number 4 could be called " Damp "

 

[taherman]

I like all the terms but number 4 could be called " Damp "

I'd probably call them:

1-marshy
2-wet
3-damp
4-moist

but we need to develop a "Definitive Guide to Wetness" in order to ensure proper usage

 

[Ben Krysa]

The idea of establishing a moisture scale is great! I think it will make many future posts a little easier to establish what degree of moisture is being used for certain species.

Perhaps a number 5. "Dry" could be added to the list?

Otterwoman are those Juvie T.verrucosus in your second pic? Very nice.

 

[Otterwoman]

Perhaps a number 5. "Dry" could be added to the list?

Do any newts like it dry?

Otterwoman are those Juvie T.verrucosus in your second pic? Very nice.

no; they go (and I'll go with Tim's terms)

1- T. grans - marshy
2- T. shanjing (close though) - wet
3- adult verrucosus - damp
4- popei - moist

 

[Joost]

A few Tylototritons like it dry (in their cool period).
As for your marshy pic, I would add gravel, instead of peat and leaves. There is a change for grow fungus

 

[Kerry1968]

I'm going to be pedantic here, I would say 'moist' was wetter than 'damp', sorry!

 

[Otterwoman]

I'm going to be pedantic here, I would say 'moist' was wetter than 'damp', sorry!

That's OK; I was wondering about that too. Is there specific definitions of these terms that specify how wet they are?

 

[Azhael]

Neurergus and Ommatotriton also like dry conditions...surprisingly dry.
To perhaps a lesser extent, the same can be said for T.pygmaeus, L.boscai and even P.waltl (although nobody keeps them terrestrial).

 

[oceanblue]

I've tried looking up how to numerically quantify soil moisture and the standard technique is to weigh a quantity, dry it out in an oven, fairly cool at around 100 C and re weigh.

Loss of weight divided by original weight equals percentage water. This covers soils most plant biologists study but only the wet to dryer moist bit of your scale.

The trouble is that most newt keepers want to work on the dripping wet side of saturated. I suggest for this you dump a weighed measure in a sieve or cloth and see how much runs or drips out, or possibly how much can be squeezed out by hand.

It should be possible to put numbers onto your descriptions which will be different for peaty, sandy or clay or loam soils but consistent for each one. You can then give a numerical description of your soil such as a peaty soil containing 30g drainable water and 40g non drainable water per 100g. This sounds like a bog to me!

 

[taherman]

How about "lukedamp"?

 

[Otterwoman]

How about "lukedamp"?

That's a new word. I think I'm going to go with these:

1- marshy w/ pooling
2- marshy
3- wet
4- damp


Because I'm going to use them and refer to these pics when I describe moisture levels.