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CE528. Environmental Chemistry & Microbiology: Soil & Sediment Sampling
CE528. Environmental Chemistry & Microbiology: Soil & Sediment Sampling
CE528. Environmental Chemistry & Microbiology: Soil & Sediment Sampling
Soil testing is an acceptably accurate and rapid soil chemical analysis for
assessing available nutrient status for making fertilizer recommendations.
The major steps in practical soil testing are:
1. Soil sampling
2. Preparation of soil sample
3. Extraction/ analysis of available nutrients by an appropriate
laboratory method
4. Interpretation of soil analysis data
Soil Sampling
• undisturbed stratification:
• remove a core with all horizon information retained, eg
with auger
• disturbed stratification
• no attempt to keep the vertical connection between
horizons, eg with a shovel
Soil Sampling
• DEPTH of SAMPLING
• Related to the TYPE of CROP, DEPTH
of
ROOTS and TILLAGE
• LANDSCAPE
• LAWN
• SHRUBS
• TREES
Soil Sampling
1. Soil sampling
Soil sample must be true
representative of the
field or the part of the
field being tested.
The figure provides the
suggested sampling
procedure for a small
field and for a large field
(Peck and Melsted, 1967).
For soil sampling, special augers with a core diameter of 1–2 cm are convenient, but small spades
can also be used. In any case, a uniform slice of soil should be taken from top to bottom of the
desired sampling depth.
Sampling requirement:
Tools- Shovel, spade, khurpi, augers
Use clean tools
Sample from the proper depth and
location
Place samples in clean bucket for mixing
Sampling using Augers
Soil Analysis Ch 8 12
Riffling
Soil sampling and testing