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NOTE: To get off this list, send email to majordomo@aqua.ccwr.ac.za with the body of the message containing the line: unsubscribe sowacs Can someone more expert than me in gypsum blocks please help Susan? Thanks. Alan Robock ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 20:27:01 +0800 From: Susan Ferguson <susan.ferguson@antdiv.gov.au> To: robock@envsci.rutgers.edu Subject: Soil moisture help Hello Alan, My name is Susan Ferguson and I'm interested in soil moisture and I was hoping that you would be able to give me some friendly advice. I'm currently at Casey Station, Antarctica, studying bioremediation of petroleum contaminated soils. My initial finding have indicated that soil moisture is one of the primary limiting factors to bioremediation in this region. We think that what happens is that we get a fair bit of snow over the winter which doesn't melt until spring and summer. This snow melts, flows though the soil, hit's the permafrost and flows out into the bay and is thus unavailable for microbial activity. I am hoping to measure the soil moisture in this region to verify this hypothesis. I have obtained a data logger with several temperature probes (8) and two soil moisture probes (gypsum blocks). My original thought was to measure temperature at four depths (surface, 5cm, 10cm and 20 cm) as well as a moisture at one depth (8cm) in two profiles. I'm actually more of a chemist so I really don't understand that much about soil physics and such. My main dilemma at the moment is setting up the data logger. Having just read your web page, I'm concerned that the gypsum blocks are unsuitable for this area as it is a fairly arable environment. As they are the only thing that I have available, I have to plough ahead needless. So, how do I go about calibrating these probes and converting the result into a meaningful value. The data logger measures water content in bars, which is pretty meaningless to me. What is soil moisture usually measured in? I usually solvent extract all moisture out of the soil and convert my chemical analysis results into per dry weight of soil. Is it possible for me to take a series of reading on the data logger and calibrate it with the solvent extraction method. I don't know what standard my results will be, but I'm more than happy to contribute to your web site if possible. Thankyou in advance for your time in this matter. Any other suggestions that you have would be very welcome at this point before I drive myself crazy with this. Thanks again Yours sincerely Susan Ferguson University of Tasmania & Australian Antarctica Division Casey Station, Antarctica [Susan, for starters read the Gypsum Block introduction page http://www.sowacs.com/sensors/gypsum.html and follow the links to various more detailed sites, including the MEA feature page "Ressurecting the gypsum block" : http://www.sowacs.com/feature/mea/mea.html You may also want to subscribe to the sowacs email discusiion group so that you will recieve any replies from the group. Bruce]