Conclusion: McKenzie Czabaj
Throughout this experiment I have learned a lot, especially that soil thieves do exist. The part that stood out to me the most was how important soil truly is. Soil isn't just "dirt" as the average person would say. Instead it's a living entity. Even though our microorganism experiment showed no microorganisms at the time, we found other organisms such as worms and insects while working with our soil. These creatures work very hard to help decompose and add nutrients to the soil. Without these creatures, our soil would be just dirt. Before I was oblivious to the fact that soil needs nutrients or else plants won't grow. I always just assumed soil was soil and plants could grow anywhere they wanted depending on their individual adaptations, but I was wrong. After testing our soil and finding trace elements of Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium, I had little hope for our controlled experiment. When we remediated our soil, we had to add lots of elements in hopes of making our lettuce grow. Our controlled experiment did grow, but very very little. The remediated soil produced 5X or more sprouts. This proves that we need to take care of our soil as best as possible in order to continue providing for our population, because once its gone, its gone; well for our lifetime at least.

Martin Niemiec: Well, really, over the course of this experiment I learned a lot of common sense and specific things. Take care of the soil so you don't overuse it, sand drains better than clay, plants need nutrients like N, K, P to grow... Things that kinda make sense on their own. At my dad's house there is a garden, and I've been helping in that garden for years. Instead of being an enlightening experience for me (I've already seen all the worms, let the soil lie fallow, planted beans to get some nitrogen back...), this lab was mostly scientific practice, because I've already come into contact with the bigger concepts. What I learned was more like how to use a Bunsen burner and the crucible tongs, how to use a drying oven and test for nutrients in the soil. Of course, everyone should be aware that soil is a living, breathing, organic thing, and that taking care of it is in our (and the planet's) best interests, but I can't really claim these are things I learned from this lab. However, this lab was still a fun and rewarding experience, and I did acquire a lot of knowledge about our local soil, like how nutrient poor ours turned out to be. Illinois is a farmland state, too, so this showed me how much fertilizer farmers have to use in order to grow all the food we need, and put that in a bit of perspective. Despite already knowing about the importance of soil, when you see how excited all those people were about... dirt, you can't help but look at it with a little bit more reverence and appreciation. Thanks, dirt.

Salinization

Salinization:

In this experiment, there were seven bags; each was filled with a 120 mL salt solution, a paper towel, and five beans. The concentrations were as follows: 0, .5 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 grams salt per 100 mL water.
The only bags that showed signs of germination were the control (0 grams) and the smallest concentration (.5 grams). The one that grew the best was the .5 gram concentration of salt. Based on this data, we can conclude that large amounts of salt (1 g per 100 mL or more) are not good for growing. We can also conclude that no salt can still work for growing, but a little bit of salt is the best. The .5g salt/100mL water solution was the equivalent to the amount of salt found in natural water such as rain (not acid rain) and fresh water.

Too much salt can cause problems such as toxicity, inadequate amounts of moisture and oxygen, and a high pH that makes necessary nutrients unavailable to plants. To remediate the soil, one can use deep tilling, breaking up larger pieces of soil to improve downward flow of water, soil flushing, using low-salt water to flush the root zone, chemical remediation, adding lime, sulfur, or calcium to the soil to replace the salt, and a combination of these methods which is the most effective. 

.5 grams salt/100 mL water solution after approximately 5 days

Remediation and Controlled Experiment:


To test our knowledge of soil, we had to figure out what our soil sample needed and add whatever it was. After we did that, we compared the growth of lettuce seeds in the remediated soil to the growth of lettuce seeds in a control cup. To remediate the soil, I added to 53 grams of dirt: 20 ml of sand (in a beaker) to increase drainage and 75 ml of mushroom fertilizer (in a beaker) to increase nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus levels. Then we planted ten lettuce seeds in each, and watered them with 50 ml of water every few days until the end of the growing period. Here is the process and the results:

Original dirt

One control, one remediated

Seeds planted and beginning to grow. Remediated on top.

Growth near end. Remediated on left.

Remediated lettuce seedlings

Control seedlings

Berlese Funnel Test:

     The purpose of this multi-day test was to discover what kinds of organisms were inhabiting our soil. The end goal was to drive the little macroinvertebrates into a pool of ethanol over the course of several days using a heat lamp, where we could later inspect what has collected in the pool to learn about our soil's biodiversity. Dirt was placed in another bottle-funnel apparatus, 10 cm away from a heat lamp, and kept there for 5 days. When we went to analyze our results, it turned out that our filter had broken and some dirt had fallen in the ethanol pool. However, we proceeded regardless, but found nothing anyway. Apparently some dirt does not contain much life in the form for which we were searching, and ours did not come up with any.

Soil Porosity Test!

The purpose of this test was to find out how much water (or anything) our soil could hold at complete saturation, essentially finding the amount of our soil which is empty space. To find that , we put a certain amount of soil in a beaker, poured as much water as we could without oversaturating the soil, then compared the two volumes in percents to find the soil porosity. The beaker had 200 mL of soil and was able to hold 80 mL of water. Porosity= 80 mL H20 /200 mL of soil = .4 or 40% pore space.

Soil Dry Percolation Rate Test!

    The purpose of this test was to see how quickly water percolated (or drained) through our soil compared to some other substances. To do this, we created funnels from bottles and poured water through them, keeping track of the time it took for it to drain a measurable amount to the bottom. Illinois soil is known to be pretty full of clay,  but we only found a little bit in our composition test and the water drained through it quite quickly.
The soil drained 28 mL of water in 13.2 seconds. 28 mL/ 13.2 sec.= 2.12 mL/sec.
The sand drained 18 mL of water in 18.5 seconds. 18 mL/ 18.5 sec. = .97 mL/sec.
The clay drained 40 mL of water in 12.8 seconds.  40 mL/ 12.8 sec. = 3.13 mL/sec.

Soil Moisture Test!

     Fortunately, whichever rapscallions made off with our lovely dirt tray did not do so until later in this test, so some deliberation may occur. The purpose of this test was to find out how much water our soil sample held- similar to the porosity, but on a more intrinsic level. In order to do this, we would essentially blow dry the soil as one does wet hair after a shower, but there would be no hair (only dirt) and no hairdryer (only an oven in which it would be dried overnight). By looking at the difference in the masses of the soil before and afterwards, we could measure how much of the soil was originally water and evaporated off in the course of the heating. Fortunately, we were able to run another sample, and we found out that our dirt actually lost quite a bit of water. The original mass of the soil was 99.1 grams. After we placed it in the oven, we remeasured the mass of the soil and found it to be 60.9 grams. This means it lost an overall 38.2 grams or was 38.2 g/ 99.1 g = 38.5 % water.

The original dirt as it was last seen.

Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium and pH Tests

Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium and pH tests:

     For both the Nitrogen and pH tests, we had to mix small amounts of soil with solutions to determine the pH of the soil and how much Nitrogen was in the soil. We had very small amounts of or no nutrients in our soil. For the Nitrogen, we concluded we had trace elements of Nitrogen. Unfortunately for the future of some of the lettuce seedlings in our care, the Phosphorus levels appeared to be trace to none as well; with the Potassium being only slightly higher in abundance. For the pH, we determined the pH is between 6.0 and 7.0 (relatively neutral). The Phosphorous had trace amounts (about 0 lb/acre) and the Potassium took 18 drops to make the solution blue. This means that it had low amounts of Potassium or about 0-120 lbs/acre.
      In the area that we collected soil, we found wild strawberries beginning to grow. Strawberries can be grown best in 6.0 pH, but they can be grown in a wide range of soil pH. The plants looked relatively healthy even though our tests concluded that there was absolutely no nutritional value in the soil other than low amounts of potassium.

Percent Organic Matter Test:

For this test, our soil sat overnight in an oven to evaporate all of the moisture out of it. It was then placed in a crucible and weighed 83.5 grams. The crucible then sat above a bunsen burner in order to burn off all of the organic matter. It is lost due to the conversion of organic matter to carbon dioxide and water at high temperatures. After about 30 minutes of being heated, the bunsen burner was turned off and the crucible left to cool. Five minutes after it was cooled, we went to weigh the new mass. However, we spilled the soil and human error is not accounted for in our calculation of organic matter in the soil. The end mass, 73.1 grams give or take a few then lets us calculate the percentage to the best of our ability.

(83.5 grams - 73.1 grams)/ 83.5 grams = ~12.5% organic matter

 It is not necessary to measure the mass of the soil alone because the mass of the crucible never changes. It is the same in the beginning as in the end and you are not testing the mass of the soil, but the change in mass from beginning to end. It is important to have organic materials in the soil because having organic materials improves the infiltration of water and air by increasing pore space. In addition to it helping with the pore space of the soil structure, it also loosens soil making it easier for plants to spread their roots. A second reason why organic matter is important is because it increases water capacity. It is said to be that organic matter is 1,000X more absorbent than just plain minerals. A third and final reason why organic matter is important is because it adds nutrients to the soil. Without natural nutrients, most plants would not be able to grow without man-made fertilizers. These nutrients are released into the soil as organisms in the soil digest and decompose their "food" or organic matter.

Soil Texture Test:

Qualitative Test- For the qualitative test, soil was mixed with a small amount of water and mixed in Martin's hand. Once the small ball of soil was formed, the soil was found to feel sticky. This means that it is mostly clay. We were also able to form a small, short ribbon out of the soil. This determines that the soil is a silt or loam. By putting together the fact that our soil is mostly clay and was able to form a short ribbon, we can conclude that our soil is a silty clay loam.

Quantitative Test- For the quantitative test, 70 mL of soil was placed in a graduated cylinder with approximately 35 mL of tap water. We shook the mixture for about one minute and then left it over night to settle. After all of the components settled, it was determined that the mixture held 0 mL of sand , 60 mL of silt, 7 mL of clay, and 30 mL of organic matter/water (about 2 mL of organic matter). Overnight about 3 mL of water evaporated.

60 mL of silt/ 70 total mL of soil = 86% silt

7 mL of clay/ 70 total mL of soil = 10% clay

2 mL of organic matter/ 70 total mL of soil = 3% organic matter

0 mL of sand/ 70 total mL of soil = 0% sand

To account for the missing 1%, we can assume it was the moisture in the soil that either evaporated with the water or combined with the overall water originally added to the mixture.

According to the Soil Textural Triangle, our soil is silt. This is different than what we discovered in the Qualitative Test, silty clay loam. The difference in percentage of clay was 20-30%, the difference in percentage of sand was 10-20%, and the difference in silt was  30-40%. 

The data from our dry percolation test states that our soil drained 28 mL of water in 13.2 seconds. Clay drained 40 mL of water in 12.8 seconds and sand drained 18 mL of water in 18.5 seconds. This shows that our soil behaved more like clay than it did sand. This was proven true when we determined our soil had 0% sand and about 10% clay.
In comparison to Melissa Goldberg's soil, they are very similar. Both have 10% or less of clay, 90% of silt, and little to no sand. Melissa's group collected soil from a forest in her partner's backyard. Both soils were found in forests (ours was from Cuba Marsh). Kristen and Michael also got their soil from Cuba Marsh. There results also showed a sticky clay-like texture and was determined to be silt or silt loam in both the qualitative and quantitative tests. We believe that the soils are similar in texture because they are both meant to support trees. This is likely because silt is very rich in nutrients and helps plants grow. For those reasons, silt is considered a natural fertilizer.

Collecting Dirt!

     After being introduced to our purpose, our somewhat legal adventures took us to Cuba Marsh Forest preserve in search of our treasure- dirt! or soil, as Mrs. Cohen would prefer. We found an area in a forest which had dirt that looked relatively undisturbed, and took enough of it (12 inches deep) with a trowel to fill a one gallon plastic bag at least halfway. The soil was of a relatively dark color, with background knowledge indicating that it should have high clay content. The soil collected had few stones, but a good amount of clumps where the generally soft soil had combined with itself. There was much plant life in the area, but no buildings and only a gravel pathway nearby, meaning we should have relatively nice dirt in that plastic bag. Be sure to stick around for more dirt-filled feats and escapades!




--sorry Ms. Cohen I cannot figure out how to rotate pictures.

Introduction:

Around 45% of soil is composed of mineral matter, 25% is air, 25% is made of water, and the remaining 5% is organic matter. The difference between soil and dirt is that soil is alive and dirt is dead. Soil is formed through five factors:
1- Parent Material: mineral and organic matter
2- Climate: weathering breaks down the parent material
3- Living Organisms: plants and animals decompose adding nutrients to the soil
4- Topography: whether or not the landscape is flat or sloped
5- Time: creating soil takes many, many years
When examining texture, you look at how much sand, clay and/or silt is in the soil. You also check to see if the soil is loamy or not. The color of the texture tells you all about the soil's history, richness, and composition. pH will tell you whether or not the soil is too acidic or too alkaline. This is important to know because certain plants/crops can only grow in certain pH levels. For example, blueberries can only grow in very acidic soil. The structure of the soil is the arrangement of solid clumps and porous space located between them.

Most soil in Illinois is called Drummer soil. It is a thick silty clay loam. This means it is composed of 0-30% sand, 40-60% silt, and 30-40% clay. In Hawaii, the soil is called Hilo and is a silty clay loam composed of relatively the same percentages as Illinois. The difference though is in color. Illinois is a grayish brown whereas Hawaii's soil is a dark brown. In Georgia, the soil is called Tifton. Tifton is a loamy sand composed of 10-15% clay, 0-30% sand or silt. Arizona soil is called Casa Grande. It is a  saline-sodic fine sandy loam. This means it is composed of 50-70% sand, 0-30% silt, and 0-20% clay. 
There are many reasons for farmers to want to analyze the soil. Economic benefits from soil analysis include being able to grow the crops themselves. Crops can only be produced in certain soils suited to them, and without planting them in the right plants, farmers would not make good tasting foods. If their crops did not taste good, no one would buy them and then they would not make a profit. A second benefit of soil analysis is the crop rotation or cover crop usage. If the soil is good for the main crop grown, then it must also be good for the crops used in the crop rotation or the cover crop. If the soil cannot support all the crops necessary, then the nutrients in the soil will be depleted in a short period of time and the farmer cannot grow any more crops. This then causes him to lose profit. A social benefit of soil analysis is being able to sustain for the population. Without farmers being able to produce food, humans would have no way of staying alive. This is especially important due to the increasing population in many countries. For example, Mexico's population is rapidly increasing and without farming techniques and determining what crops can be grown where, they will not be able to provide food for all of the inhabitants. Another social benefit is the ability to provide jobs. If a farmer did not test the soil, he or she could attempt to grow crops in an area not suited for farming. If this occurred, the farmer would realize shortly after that they cannot grow crops and must fire all of their employees. However, if a farmer tested the soil, he or she would know the soil is good for farming and be able to provide jobs for people in the long run. This is ties in with the growing populations and more people needing jobs. This is also an economic benefit because the more one makes, the more one is likely to spend.