Happy and dry in my rain gear!
Today was a rainy day up at Hubbard Brook and I was out digging up data on how much nitrogen is moving down through the soil, past the roots, and likely out of the ecosystem. To do this, we bury ion-exchange resin bags in the soil below the rooting zone. These are water permeable nylon bags filled with small beads that have been chemically charged to attract positive and negative ions. As water flows through the soil, it moves through these bags and the ions in the water get trapped on the beads. We can then bring the bags back to the lab and analyze the chemicals that have been intercepted.
A resin bag being excavated from the soil. The location of the bag is marked by a flag and we tie fishing line to the bag to help retrieve it.
For this project, we are interested in how our temperature treatments impact the amount of inorganic nitrogen moving through the soil. Tomorrow morning, I will extract the ions from the beads and then analyze for ammonium and nitrate content. These particular bags were first placed in the field back in June. They will provide us with an estimate for the rate of nitrogen leaching from June – October.