I work as a soil ecologist on a project aiming to assess the life in the soil around Europe (SOB4ES). In the first years, we mostly take soil samples to identify the different organisms in the soil. This will allow us to better understand who lives where and maybe also why and with which consequences.
The university I work for is in Northern Spain, in Vigo. Soil sampling in rural Galicia never gets boring. From pouring rain that floods away the soil you were trying to extract organisms from, nearly being blown away while taking soil samples in between wind parks, hunting for endless ants, being stranded in green fairytale lands, getting helping hands from whole farm families, races against the early winter nights, curious horses visiting the extraction site, a cuddely kitty distracting us, a huge ox strolling by close by, being filmed by the local tv, encountering lots of beautiful worms and other organisms, discovering one of the last wetlands with endangered species…
Here some impressions of the soil sampling:
There are some stunning sites and places my work is bringing me to. I am grateful for the opportunity to work outside from time to time, as it allows me to see the bigger picture. This allows us to directly relate the macrofauna we encounter to the site, and it also aids us in the laboratory and on the computer as we correlate the site with soil life and all associated data. We are not only looking at a 25cmx25cm block; it is embedded in a wider ecosystem. Understanding the surroundings of the plot and the site’s location is crucial. What is the climate like? Are there rivers, forests, or streets nearby? What does the vegetation look like, is it healthy, are there visible diseases on the leaves? A lot of the information is accessible via datasets these days. Having previously worked on my PhD with a dataset that only provided numerical information, I now appreciate the significant differences in conducting the entire process from soil sampling to analysis. I see the importance for actually working as an ecologist that should exactly consider those connections and links.
To better understand how such sampling days look like, I take you in an upcoming post with me, into our last winter sampling. It is much more than just soil sampling, it is a full Galician experience while up in the North…
