Sampling at Nordlandet 2009

Objectives

• Collection of 40 microarthropod samples with soil corer from one location in 5 grazed and 5 ungrazed plots (4 samples per plot).
  
• Place 100 litterbags, 10 in each plot, to determine decomposition of cellulose filter paper after one year of field incubation.
  
• Collecting 16 30x20 cm blocks of soil/foerne to a depth of approx. 10 cm for bulk microarthropod extraction.
  
• Collection of soil samples for physico-chemical soil characterisation.
  

Sampling location

 The location of the soil ecology sampling area at Nordlandet is approx. 70 km north of Nuuk, see Google maps.

Selection and positioning of sampling plots

The grazed and ungrazed habitats were unreplicated. Within each habitat 5 parallel 20 meter transects were established.  

Microarthropod samples

16 big 20x30 cm blocks for bulk extraction were carefully cut and dug out of the soil and kept in plastic boxes during shipping on August 5 until bulk extraction in Silkeborg initiated August ??? 8 of the 16 blocks were from the transects in the ungrazed habitat (Plot 1-4) while the remaining 8 were from the transects in the grazed habitat (Plot 6-9)

Compression was avoided in all stages of handling soil samples for microarthropods. The samples was kept at 5 ^oC until processing.

4 samples (6 cm diameter, depth 5.5 cm) were collected randomly from each transect using a split corer soil sampler.

Litterbags

VWR filter paper was used as a surrogate for indigenous litter and filled into litterbags. 100 litterbags each containing 2 g filter paper, corresponding to 4 round pieces 9 cm Ø, were buried horizontally 3-5 cm into the soil. The litterbags were left open in one end for ease of emptying and further processing. Sticks with yellow tape were used to locate the litterbags after 1 year for retrieval.

The 10 litterbags within both the ungrazed and grazed habitats were placed at the 5 transects (Plot 1-5 and 6-10). They were buried 1 meter apart starting at 1 meter and ending at 10 m.

Collection of soil samples for physico-chemical soil characterisation

Sample treatment at Naturinstituttet

After 1 year litterbags are retrieved and brought to the laboratory, and then cleaned for roots, organic matter, soil particles etc. dried at 60 degrees and weighed. If the remaining dried filter paper is still contaminated by soil particles, they will have to be burned and loss on ignition (LOI) is used to determine the breakdown rate.

See detailed filter paper decomposition procedure.

Sample treatment at DMU/Silkeborg

• Extraction of microarthropods from standard 5.5 cm depth x 6 cm diameter soil cores, 40 pcs.
  
• Bulk extraction of large 20x30 cm soil/foerne blocks of microarthropods for natural isotope analysis, 16 pcs.
  
• Stable isotope analyses according to Analysis of trophic structure.
  
• Determination of
• • actual water content by drying a subsample of minimum 3 samples at 105 ^oC
  • nutrients (minimum NPK)
  • soil texture incl. pH and organic matter of representative soil samples from upper 20 cm of the soil profile (concerning samples see above).
    The soil analyses will be done at Institut for Jordbrugsproduktion og Miljø, Forskningscenter Foulum, contact:                                           
    Ulla Husballe Rasmussen phone: 89991475 (Same procedure as for Kiattuut).
    
• A number of representative pieces of the filter paper batch are heated at 50 ^oC to determine water content and dry-weight and ignited in a muffle oven to determine organic matter and ash content (this is the same batch as for Kiattuut).
  
  

  VWR cat. no. 516-0814; Qualitative filterpaper, 413; medium filtrationrate; particle retention 5-13 ym; size: 90 mm

List of materials

• 40 cylinders for soil cores and 80 red lids
• 16 boxes for large 20x30 samples
• 10 zipper plastic bags each with 10 litterbags with filterpaper, ready to dig into the soil 
• 1 plastic box with handles, 28x38x17 (depth), can be used to return samples or whatever appropriate
• Filter paper for the Akia decomposition study 5 boxes >200 g.
• 100 empty litterbags for decomposition studies at Akia etc.
  

 Data from the sampling

Contacts

Paul Henning Krogh

Department of Terrestrial Ecology
University of Aarhus
P.O. Box 314, Vejlsoevej 25
DK-8600 Silkeborg, Denmark
Office  +45 89 20 15 88 
Switchboard  +45 89 20 14 00 
Mobile  +45 27 57 10 34 
Fax +45 89 20 14 13
Private  +45 32 11 71 06 
E-mail krogh.ph@gmail.com

Speditør

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