What can we learn from soil cores?
Soils and sediment can tell us a lot about the health of a wetland, including nutrient concentrations, average productivity, and flooding patterns. There’s a rich history in every soil sample that scientists can piece together if they know what to look for.
Soil cores are a method of collecting soils that allow the observer to get a vertical profile within a layer of sediment or soil. [1] Depending on the desired characteristic, cores can be a foot of material from the surface or they can be over 6 feet tall starting 20 feet below the surface. Each study using a core sample can tell a diverse story. For example, cores in coastal wetlands can be used at CRMS sites to measure accretion on top of marker horizons in an RSET-MH apparatus , in swamps to gauge the oxidation potential of soils, or in marsh to quantify the living root mass that provides structural integrity to platforms. Sediment types, decomposition, and bulk density can also be measured.
Knowing the quality of soils that you’re working with is important in planning for success in the restoration field. Poor soil quality will have lower success in repopulating native flora, as we discussed in our Wetland Wednesday post here. Soil cores lead us to a better understanding of processes that we may not be able to see and to predict the future of ecosystems. Soil testing is a crucial part of conservation and will be a vital tool in the fight to protect our coast.
Featured image from http://uwmyvatn.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-grass-is-always-greenerin-midge.html
[1] https://kb.osu.edu/bitstream/handle/1811/513/1/(98)%202.11%20Soils.pdf
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