Main subject area: Soil structure and aggregation
Soil aggregation is essential for maintaining soil structure, fertility, and resilience, ultimately supporting ecosystem productivity and sustainability. There are several laboratory methods for assessing soil aggregate stability. Most of these approaches are typically destructive and involve evaluating the resistance of soil aggregates or undisturbed cores to fragmentation under wet or, less frequently, dry conditions.
New methods for assessing aggregate stability have emerged, such as the SLAKES technique, which employs image recognition to measure the increase in area of a soil aggregate as it disperses in water. Another method, the QuantiSlake test, involves dynamically weighing a dried structured soil sample once immersed in water. This project will utilize various soil types (clay, silt, loam) that have undergone machine-induced compaction. The SLAKES and QuantiSlake methods will be compared with the traditional Eijkelkamp wet sieving method to evaluate their effectiveness.
Any time
Blichers Alle 20, Tjele, 8830-DK
45 ECTS: Experimental theses in which the student is responsible for collection and analysis of his/her own original data
60 ECTS: Experimental theses in which the student is responsible for planning, trial design and collection and analysis of his/her own original data
