Soil offers hope
Our partner Stephon Thomas from NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) joined us to show Kenn how to map the field to a Google Earth aerial photo using a submeter GPS. The points we mapped will provide the base map onto which we can use GIS to layer all sorts of different data, including water flow channels, planting information, sunlight patterns, and soil sampling data.
We’re starting a lunchtime conversation group to share ideas, knowledge, and perspectives on soil and its connections to local climate resilience, public health, human history, and our global future. Campus and local community are welcome!
Grab your lunch and join us the following days in Lower Evans (meeting rooms 1-2):
Send your questions or comments to Molly Embree at membree@agnesscott.edu.
The arrival of many types of fungi in the field are a fantastic sign that organic materials (e.g. leaf litter, mulch, dead plants and insects) are being recycled into new soil. Check out the beautiful “bird’s nest” fungi below, with the spores as “eggs” in the mature ones.
A special tool called a “bulk density soil core sampler” allows collection of samples that are practically undisturbed — meaning that the sampler doesn’t compact the soil sample as it collects it . . . We got our BD sampler and tried it out in the field for the first time today.
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