Soil on Ko Lon
Tanah made it to a tiny island for DINACON, and made it back in one piece (actually two healthy pieces), and with a set of ideas for soil tests!
By Huiying Ng, with help of Stig Anton Nielsen, Brian Huang, Seamus/Scott Kildall, Tasneem Kahn, Adam Zaretsky, Michelle Lai
DINACON 13–20 June 2018
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This log includes ideas for preparing soil, and fun tests to do with it. As an example I use a set of soil samples we worked on.
Soil was collected from five sites; the third is a muddy water sample which was not kept for testing. The four remaining samples are referred to as S1, S2, S4, S5.
Preparing/extracting soil:
First, to extract a compacted bit of soil (shows colour but compacts soil; soil can later be broken up):
Next, tests we have tried:
A) soil pH sensor powered on an Arduino board — measure of low pH indicates possible presence of heavy metals. Variables and thresholds for this have to be considered. Working Code.
B) Conductivity tests with an Arduino board (or custom-made board) — as a simple measure of molecules suspended in soil composition; does not account for type of molecule.
And tests we have not:
C) soil chromatography — soil in colours
D) soil microbes on agar plates
E) Fun to workshop together:
Soil “sense” descriptors — colours, loaminess, density and texture, compactness;
Soil “measured” descriptors — weight, composition (sand, silt, clay), nutrient composition, heavy metals’ presence, pH, elevation of the sampling site
Attributions/references:
low-cost corer: Stig Anton Nielsen
pH sensor code: Brian Huang
conductivity tests: Scott Kildall
Soil chromatography: Tasneem Kahn
Soil/water microbes: Adam Zaretsky and Tasneem
Ongoing ideas, elevation ideas: Stig, Michelle Lai
