Equipment & Protocols

Instruments used in the Central Analytical Lab include: 

ICP-OES: Agilent 5110 VDV ICP-OES

Analyzes dissolved liquid plant and soil extracts and water samples for a variety of elements: P, K, Ca, Na, Mg, Mn, Cu, Zn, Fe, B, As, Cd, Ni, Pb, Mo, and possibly other elements on request. 

CNS: Elementar Vario Macro Cube

Analyzes ~100mg of solid, dried, ground plant or soil samples for total C, N, and S. 

TOC/TON: Shimadzu TOC-V CSH and TNM-1

Analyzes soil extracts or water samples for total organic carbon and total organic nitrogen.

NH4-N/NO3-N: Lachat 8500 Series 2 Flow Injection Analyzer

Analyzes soil extracts or water samples for ammonia-nitrogen and nitrate-nitrogen using QuikChem methods 12-107-06-2-A and 12-107-04-1-B.

pH/EC: Hanna HI5522

Analyzes soil or water samples for active or exchangeable pH and 2:1 slurry EC. 

Microwave digestor: Anton Paar MultiwaveGO

Digests samples in preparation for total elemental analysis. Extracts analyzed on ICP-OES.

Dry ash/LOI: Thermolyne F-A1730

Heats soil samples and plant samples to the ashing temperature for estimates of soil organic matter and analysis of the inorganic elemental composition of plants. Plant extracts analyzed on ICP-OES.