Facilities - FoReST

The Main FoReST Laboratory is located in the Braun Building BB1071 and houses the instrumentation necessary for measuring pH, electrical conductivity, particle size distribution, organic matter (high capacity muffle furnace) and total carbon, nitrogen and sulphur (LECO CNS-2000). All chemical extractions are performed in the main lab, which are then brought to the instrumentation laboratory (LUIL), located in UC0001, for analysis by ICP-AES and spectrophotometer

 

 

 

The FoReST Prep lab is used to process and store all incoming soil and vegetation samples. The Prep Lab is well equipped to process a variety of sample types and houses a large drying oven, Humbolt flail soil grinder, many units for hand grinding (mortar & pestle, and sieves), as well as a Wiley micromill for the grinding of foliage and other vegetation samples. A large number of research samples can also be stored upon request for a set duration of time following analyses.

 

The Autoanalyzer/Digestion Laboratory is the facility which houses our five Technicon Autoanalyzers (manifolds set up to measure Ammonium, Nitrate, Phosphorous, Total Soluble Nitrogen, and Dissolved Organic Carbon) and our Thermo open vessel block digestor (used to digest soil and plant matter for the determination of total nutrient values).

In addition to our lab facilities, the FoReST lab is also equipped with various types of equipment necessary to collect field samples (soil augers, bulk density cores, and portable pH/conductivity probes).