Left: “Intensive” section. Right: “Extensive” section
We began offering microBIOMETER® Academia Classroom Kits last year and are excited with the interest we have received so far from universities, high schools and other academic institutions in the U.S. and abroad. Professors are utilizing our soil test to introduce their students to the world of microbes and soil health.
Mary Ann Bruns, Professor of Soil Microbiology at Penn State University recently shared how students in her Soil Ecology class used microBIOMETER® to analyze microbial biomass in the 10-year-old Green Roof Medium of the Forest Resources Building on campus.
Students took composite samples from the “intensive” section (where rooting medium was originally 12 inches in depth) and the adjacent “extensive” section (depth of 4 inches). Samples were taken next to the blue fescue plants in both sections.
Having a deeper layer of growth medium provides more water and nutrients for plants, so the hypothesis was that samples from intensive (healthier) areas would have higher MBC than those from extensive (dried out) areas. Average depths were 7.1 and 3.8 inches, respectively, in intensive and extensive areas. Average MBC for the two areas were 253 and 159 micrograms per gram medium, respectively. Click here to read the full report.
A special thank you to Mary Ann and her students for sharing their research, data and photos! If you would like to share your student’s microBIOMETER® research in our newsletter or learn more about our Academia Classroom Kits, please contact us.
From left to right: Penn State students Tyler Gryskevicz, Amanda Grube and Jason Ben Legayada.
In the spring and early summer of 2020, the Nutrient Management Spear Program at Cornell University conducted a soil survey of yield-stability based management zones on a New York dairy farm.
Ben Lehman, research assistant in the Nutrient Management Spear Program at Cornell University, completed a study on the Within- Field Variability of Soil Characteristics and Corn Yield Stability on a New York Dairy Farm.
Ben utilized microBIOMETER® in his research to determine the microbial biomass of the soil samples.
This study was presented at the 2020 American Society of Agronomy Annual Meeting.
Source: Cornell Center for Materials Research
Often, we are asked about variance – different results when you test the same sample. Our answer is that nature produces most of this variance. To explain, when you measure out 0.5 cc of soil, you have on average about 0.6 grams of soil. If your microBIOMETER® results read 300ugMBC/gram of soil, that means you have 600ug of microbial biomass – we divide the number we get by ½ because the literature tells us that 50% of the dried MB is carbon. As dried bacteria is estimated to weigh 1pg, if this were all bacteria, it constitutes 600,000,000pg or 600 million bacteria.
Now imagine that I have 600 apartment buildings in NYC that each contain 1 million people, and I decide to check 10 apartments in 10 buildings at 4 p.m. to estimate the number of people actually in the building. Obviously, it would vary because people are not always in their apartment and different apartments have different numbers of inhabitants – the same is true for soil.
Soil contains microscopic aggregates of different sizes and the number and type of inhabitants in each varies on the physical and chemical composition of the space as well as the nutrient, pH and hydration level. Each sample you take is like looking at a number of different apartments in a number of apartment buildings.
For this reason, when conducting research, soil and medical researchers run duplicates or triplicates. Because of cost, soil labs generally do not run duplicates and they see 10- 25% variation. We are recommending running duplicates when using microBIOMETER® unless you are doing academic research. Generally, we see <10% variation for a given sample, and for a field that looks homogeneous. Pastures can have much higher variation because the nutrients level across the area varies tremendously.
Earthworms recover from Roundup exposure
The effect of various Roundup formulations and microplastics on soil.
Dr. Sharon Pochron and her students at Stonybrook University in New York have been using microBIOMETER® for two years. Dr. Pochron studies the effect of various Roundup formulations and microplastics on soil microbes and soil invertebrates.
Her most recent publication (See Figure 2) shows microbial biomass increasing on day 7 in both the Roundup treated and untreated soils – the 0 line depicts the microbial biomass on day 0. This increase is probably due to the soil microbes responding to rewetting. By day 14 the microbial biomass in the uncontaminated soil is back to baseline, but the Roundup treated soil has dropped well below baseline. By day 21 both soils have returned to baseline. This study shows only total microbial biomass recovery, but there is evidence that Roundup can affect microbial composition.
Prolific Earth Sciences is supporting research at various universities. Feel free to contact us to discuss your project and how we can assist.
