Doing the microbes

Part of what is so exciting about this experiment is understanding what microbiology is going on below the surface of the soil, and how that connects to plants and insects that we see above ground. As part of understanding these communities, we want to look at how active the communities are by measuring how much they are "breathing". We can measure CO2 using solvita gel that changes color in the presence of different amounts of carbon dioxide produced by wet soils. We also want to measure the biomass of the organisms present in the soil, and can use a chloroform fumigation-extraction technique (using potassium sulfate and chloroform) that can help us assess this biomass. Overall, this will help us understand how healthy the soils are, and if this biological activity is correlated with plant defense.

Woohoo soil biology!!