Short blog post this week (proposal season, ahhhhhh!!!!), but I’m pleased to say that we made the cover of the Soil Science Society of America Journal. That’s right, I took the photo of the mystery gloved hand injecting a mystery substance into a soil crack.
For those that are wondering (and don’t want to read the article), the hand belongs to my colleague Dr. Majdi Abou Najm, and the mystery goop is water mixed with guar gum, in order to create a shear-thinning viscous solution.
The idea is that the viscous fluid will fill the crack without much loss to infiltration into the soil, allowing us to measure the size of various macropores. The best part is that soil microbes low to eat guar gum, so it quickly degrades, leaving the macropore more or less intact (this is important if you are trying to measure something like the effect of macropores on how water moves over and through the landscape).
For more information, check out the upcoming May issue of CSA News, where our work will be featured. Exciting times!
The idea is that the viscous fluid will fill the crack without much loss to infiltration into the soil, allowing us to measure the size of various macropores. The best part is that soil microbes low to eat guar gum, so it quickly degrades, leaving the macropore more or less intact (this is important if you are trying to measure something like the effect of macropores on how water moves over and through the landscape).
For more information, check out the upcoming May issue of CSA News, where our work will be featured. Exciting times!