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Contributed Talk

Session: : Soil 4

COS 312-3 - The Deep Soil Ecotron - Exploring belowground communities and ecosystem processes

Thursday, August 10, 2023
4:00 PM – 4:15 PM PDT
Location: D133-134
Abstract: Not unlike the deep ocean, little is known about deep soils. Currently, research on deep soils is limited to excavating very few soil pits, while research and experiments that directly manipulate the deep soil environment are currently non-existent. The Deep Soil Ecotron will give researchers the unparalleled ability to investigate and experiment with deep soils. This facility, composed of twenty-four, highly instrumented ecounits, will allow for soil profiles up to three meters in depth to be repeatedly sampled and continuously monitored. This facility will be the first modern ecotron facility in the United States and as such will provide research infrastructure that this country currently lacks. The Deep Soil Ecotron will enable researchers to address the following four broad research needs using approaches and instrumentation which have been unattainable under more common field and laboratory experiments. First, the Deep Soil Ecotron will reveal how deep soil communities and processes affect and interact with surface soils to influence whole ecosystems. Second, the Deep Soil Ecotron will allow researchers to determine how deep soils respond to global and land-use change, such as increasing soil temperature and agricultural management practices. Third, information gained from the Deep Soil Ecotron will be integrated into earth system models to improve model representation of soil carbon cycling. Fourth, the Deep Soil Ecotron will provide a testbed for the development of sensors for the in-situ monitoring of deep soils. This presentation will provide an overview of the Deep Soil Ecotron's design, capacity, and preliminary research agenda. Ultimately the Deep Soil Ecotron will be the first of its kind in the world, shedding light on a largely unknown and unexplored environment, and accelerating research on belowground systems.