Experiment procedures:

List of Materials :

Soil Sampling:

                                              ·     Soil extractors,  Flags, Labeled plastic bags, Water (for rinsing).

Soil Extractions:

                            ·       Soil Test Kit* (*Materials listed from LaMotte STH Series Instruction Manual):  Universal Extracting Solution*, Extraction Tube (2 for each sample)*, Soil measure*,  Filter paper*, Funnel*

                       Serial Dilutions:

                          ·     Transfer pipettes, Labeled 15 mL culture tubes and caps, distilled water, soil samples, Micro-pipette with   tips (P200), yeast and mold plates.

Magnesium Test

 ·       Soil Test Kit*, soil extract*, transfer pipette*, test solutions (Magnesium Test Solution #1 and Manganese-Magnesium Test Solution #2)*, stirring rod, Magnesium Color Chart.

Procedures:

1. Find a minimum of two sites to use as the areas in which the data is collected. The sites are to represent different types of areas; streams, hills, trees, etc. This helps to equal out the experiment.

2. Find a common plant that is located in all sites, e.g. the spicebush.

3. Depending on how many sites you have, label a number of bags (1a, 1b, 1c, 2a...etc.) for collecting soil samples, with the day and sample number on each bag.  For our experiment, we had 12 bags per day, since we had 4 sites.

                             

4. Label 12 flags in the same way as the soil bags.
5. Place three flags around each of the common plants per site.   

                       

 6. Collect, at each flag, a soil sample that is 15cm deep by 2.5cm wide. All samples should be taken within a radius of 80cm of the plant. Need all of your samples collected on the same day and at the same time.
 7. Put the extracted samples into the appropriately labeled small plastic bags. Then, bring the samples inside so they can be tested for magnesium, yeast, mold, and total fungi using the magnesium test and the serial dilutions.

 8. Do all serial dilution and all magnesium tests for each sample at the same time in order to calculate the yeast and mold densities per cm³. To see the procedures for serial dilutions, click here.

                                      

9. Extract the soil so it can be used for magnesium testing and test for magnesium levels (ppm).  To see the saftey issues that comes with doing this test, click here.

                     

                                    

11. Each day, go back to your sites and gather new samples from the same spots. Repeat the same tests, the magnesium test and serial dilutions. It is important to go back outside each day, so the samples can all be put together and better calculated: the more samples, the better the experiment.

12. Examine data.

13. Draw conclusions.

                                   

Background by: http://www.buttonland.com/