Standards & Methods

A Technical Soil Services, (NRCS-NEDC-000249), session is being held in Lincoln, NE, April 19-23, 2010.  The session has been set up in AgLearn and is available for all to register.

Most livestock producers, soil scientists favor index that considers phosphorus likelihood that it would leave the land.

The Alaska DOT wants a Rapid Wetlands Functional Assessment method that can be used on linear projects in the state. Currently, Alaska does not have a standardized rapid wetlands functional assessment method.

Determining the neutralizing potential of fly ash is standard practice for permitted land application. It should be a standard practice for land application of biochar.

Issue 48 of the National Cooperative Soil Survey Newsletter (August, 2009) is now available online.

The EPA is under a Federal Court order mandating sub-24 hour testing results for multiple microorganisms in beach waters by the year 2012. Having developed their BioNanoPore technology into a battery of new and speedier petri-dish tests for water-borne disease organisms, NanoLogix is targeting that sub-24 hour goal.

Many of the soils in Southcentral Alaska, west of Cook Inlet, are derived from volcanic ash parent material. Development projects in the region will rely upon wetland delineation for permitting, but evidence of observed soil characteristics that meet the regulatory standards for wetland soils (those with anaerobic conditions) may not be readily measurable or observable in soils of volcanic ash-derived parent material. These soils, when saturated, frequently present few or no observable hydric soil features as described in the USACE Alaska Supplement of the Wetland Delineation Manual.

Researchers from U. of Wisconsin–Green Bay have published what must be the most extensive evaluation of microbial response to charcoal application in soils from managed temperate systems. Insights abound. Lacking are any insight into the proportion of the effect to allocate to the charcoal-C relative to the reactive effects of the ash component.

The global soil mapping effort aims to update and catalog the world’s soil information accurately within one clearinghouse called GlobalSoilMap.net. V1 magazine editor Matt Ball spoke with the North American coordinator of this effort, Jon Hempel, Co-Director-National Geospatial Development Center, Soil Business Area Analysis Chair at the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Morgantown, West Virginia.

View transcript of interview at http://www.vector1media.com/dialogue/interview/soil-data-goes-global/

Biochar is ... plant biomass derived materials contained within the black carbon (BC) continuum. This definition includes chars and charcoal, and excludes fossil fuel products or geogenic carbon. Warnock, 2007

Biochar is a fine-grained charcoal high in organic carbon and largely resistant to decomposition. It is produced from pyrolysis of plant and waste feedstocks. International Biochar Initiative (IBI)

I want to thank the Sacramento Black Carbon panelists (March 4, 2009) for a great hour of discussion on our unfolding understanding of black carbon in soil. Clearly there is much interest within NSCSS to dig deeper: we are developing guidance for NSCSS members on BioChar: Standards, Methods, and Opportunities. To see our current progress, click on the What is Biochar link at the bottom of this page.

The ability of soil to retain applied phosphorus depends on the P sorption capacity and physico-chemical properties of soils. There are myriad ways to characterize P sorption capacity. I am on the hunt for commercial labs that work in this area. Any suggestions? I'll post more as I learn more.