Aggregate stability kit for soil quality assessments

Abstract

Aggregate stability affects soil strength and, therefore, the soil's ability to transmit liquids and gases, which are important functions for crop production and ecosystem health. Because aggregate stability is an indicator of vital soil functions, it can be used to assess soil quality. For soil quality assessments, there is a need for a quantitative field method for measuring aggregate stability that is simple to perform, low cost, and available for routine assessments by land managers. A method is presented that follows the commonly used or standard single-sieve wet-sieving method for aggregate stability. A combination of manual sieving and drying apparatus is constructed from a trunk-style tackle box. Sieves are constructed from a 60-mesh screen and PVC reducing adapters. The method requires manual sieving, 30 cycles per minute (0.5 cycles/s) for 3 min. Percent water aggregate stabilities from the proposed manual sieving technique were not significantly different from aggregate stabilities obtained from the mechanical wet sieving technique. The proposed low cost method was able to distinguish differences in aggregate stability caused by differences in soil type and land use. This low cost method provides a tool that can be used in conjunction with other measurements to assess relative differences in soil quality.