Soil Research

So this week, I was part of research conducted by a post-doc at Syracuse University. Using some of the equipment pictured in the following photos, he is trying to simulate the amount of soil moisture and soil nutrients available to vegetation along a changing elevation gradient to determine how that influences species makeup in different parts of the park.

Burying the ground moisture sensor.

Looking for the probes and ground sensor.

Downloading data onto the computer.

Putting the ground sensor together. In the gray box is the data logger. It is hard to see but the wires sticking down have probe sensors on the bottom which measure moisture.

IButton sensor which records ground temperature data.

IButton close up. The black part is the sensor and the white cap is meant to keep the sensor out of the elements.

Soil probes in the ground (picture taken from google, I didn't get a field picture)

Soil probe example (picture taken from google, I didn't get one in the field)...The semi transparent part in the middle is a membrane that are ionized to attract nutrients such as Potasium, Nitrogen, Calcium, Phosphorus etc. The membrane is supposed to be representative of a plant's roots.

Digging hole to place ground sensor

Pulling out soil probes