UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Far from being just the ground beneath our feet, soil is also a highly valuable natural resource that sustains the global food production system, the health of which is under significant stress from climate conditions, overuse and erosion.

To help better understand and support healthy soil function, Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences has an advanced characterization facility — the Soil Research Cluster Lab — under the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management.

Ekaterina Bazilevskaya, director of the lab and assistant research professor, said the lab’s mission is to aid researchers studying soil for a variety of applications.

“The composition of soils is investigated for many reasons, including knowing how much fertilizer to apply, whether it is contaminated with heavy metals, or if it is suitable for building a structure on,” Bazilevskaya said. “Researchers need advanced instrumentation and expertise to characterize soil properties and monitor how soil responds to agricultural practices that impact the greater ecosystem.”

The lab recently has been outfitted with new equipment and is open to University students, faculty and staff. Bazilevskaya said the lab is multidisciplinary, supporting research in the areas of soil chemistry and biochemistry, soil fertility and nutrient cycling, soil physics, geosciences, pedology, hydropedology, and various agricultural and environmental ecosystem testing.

“Here in our lab, we’re ready to connect with researchers and students from the college and from other colleges and campuses at Penn State that could benefit from our instruments,” Bazilevskaya said.

She also noted that while the lab’s instruments are used to study soil, they also can be used to analyze plant and animal extracts and digests, water and wastewater, biochar, and geologic and synthetic materials.

One example is the UNICUBE organic elemental analyzer, which measures carbon and nitrogen content of soils and plant tissues. It helps researchers estimate the beneficial microbial activity resulting from organic matter’s decay.

“Studying how nitrogen changes from one growing season to the next can give you information about how much fertilizer you need to use or how to adjust your cover-crop strategy,” Bazilevskaya said.

The UNICUBE can also measure sulfur, hydrogen and oxygen in the soil, which characterize the stability and cost-effectiveness of a number of biochar-based fertilizers. According to the researchers, biochar research is growing because it is more environmentally friendly than conventional fertilizers.

Bazilevskaya said another focus of the lab is studying heavy metal contamination in soils. This can be done with an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer — a fast, low-cost and non-destructive method that provides total elemental concentrations and has been used for more than a decade for metal pollution monitoring, remediation evaluation and soil survey.

Stephen Dadio, a graduate student studying soil science who works with Philadelphia urban gardeners, said the spectrometer “is easy to use and it is a good way to make soil chemical information more accessible for people from different backgrounds.”

The latest addition to the lab is the Shimadzu gas chromatograph, which can measure greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane. This instrument, funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture, enables research on greenhouse gas emissions at field and landscape levels and their contribution to climate change.

According to Michael Robbins, lab manager, there is also an educational component to the lab for students who want to use its equipment but do not yet have the experience to operate the machines on their own.

“Students who use the lab will leave knowing how to use this specialized equipment, which can be complicated to run,” Robbins said. “These are skills that they can take with them as they continue their research here or move into the workforce elsewhere and will give them an advantage on job market.”

Having dedicated lab support is important for any shared user-facility lab to be able to transfer instrumental knowledge to students and make sure the instruments produce high-quality data, noted Bazilevskaya. “I really appreciate all Michael does to ensure the lab is running smoothly and efficiently and fulfills its educational mission,” she said.

The lab also has many tools to help prepare the soil samples, including a sieve shaker, ball mill dedicated for chemical analysis, pellet press, freeze-dryer, muffle furnace and more. In addition to the mentioned equipment for chemical analysis, the lab has several tools for measuring the physical properties of soil, including the amount of water different soils can hold for plant growth.

More information about the lab can be found at the Soil Research Cluster Lab website.