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Re: Measuring Soil Respiration with a Gas Chromatograph
Author(s) -
Brinton William F.,
Vallotton Jeremiah
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
csa news
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2325-3584
pISSN - 1529-9163
DOI - 10.2134/csa2018.63.1126
Subject(s) - citation , library science , history , art history , operations research , computer science , engineering
Current interest in soil biological activity as an indicator of soil health has prompted renewed research on CO2 respiration methodologies. A recent non-technical summary in CSA News magazine (Hmielowski, 2018) describes a gas chromatograph (GC_ method developed at Oklahoma State University for this purpose (McGowen et al., 2018). Their novel approach suggests possible advantages of time, labor, and precision for labs, due to its semi-automatic and miniaturized nature, compared with Solvita, a commercial soil respiration method developed in Maine and widely used by soil labs offering soil health analysis. Solvita utilizes a carbonate-buffer gel chemistry and was originally developed as an inexpensive and rapid method to substitute for more cumbersome base-trap titration methods.