{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,13]],"date-time":"2026-10-13T21:27:49Z","timestamp":1791926869353,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2017,12,28]],"date-time":"2017-12-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1514419200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Green roofs have many benefits, but in countries with semiarid climates the amount of water needed for irrigation is a limiting factor for their maintenance. The use of drought-tolerant plants such as Sedum species, reduces the water requirements in the dry season, but, even so, in semiarid environments these can reach up to 60 L m\u22122 per day. Continuous substrate\/soil water content monitoring would facilitate the efficient use of this critical resource. In this context, the use of plant microbial fuel cells (PMFCs) emerges as a suitable and more sustainable alternative for monitoring water content in green roofs in semiarid climates. In this study, bench and pilot-scale experiments using seven Sedum species showed a positive relationship between current generation and water content in the substrate. PMFC reactors with higher water content (around 27% vs. 17.5% v\/v) showed larger power density (114.6 and 82.3 \u03bcW m\u22122 vs. 32.5 \u03bcW m\u22122). Moreover, a correlation coefficient of 0.95 (\u00b10.01) between current density and water content was observed. The results of this research represent the first effort of using PMFCs as low-cost water content biosensors for green roofs.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s18010071","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,12,28]],"date-time":"2017-12-28T11:24:33Z","timestamp":1514460273000},"page":"71","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":52,"title":["A New Method for Sensing Soil Water Content in Green Roofs Using Plant Microbial Fuel Cells"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"given":"Natalia","family":"Tapia","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Cat\u00f3lica de Chile, Santiago 7820436, Chile"},{"name":"Centro de Desarrollo Urbano Sustentable (CEDEUS), Santiago 7520246, Chile"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Claudia","family":"Rojas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Ciencias Agron\u00f3micas, Universidad de O\u2019Higgins, Rancagua 2840856, Chile"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Carlos","family":"Bonilla","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Cat\u00f3lica de Chile, Santiago 7820436, Chile"},{"name":"Centro de Desarrollo Urbano Sustentable (CEDEUS), Santiago 7520246, Chile"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5974-2795","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ignacio","family":"Vargas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Cat\u00f3lica de Chile, Santiago 7820436, Chile"},{"name":"Centro de Desarrollo Urbano Sustentable (CEDEUS), Santiago 7520246, Chile"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,12,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"351","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ecoleng.2009.12.014","article-title":"Green roof performance towards management of runoff water quantity and quality: A review","volume":"36","author":"Berndtsson","year":"2010","journal-title":"Ecol. 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