Matthew Swallow, assistant professor at the Mount Royal University, discusses a method for determining community level physiological profiles of organic soil horizons. He is interested in understanding how land disturbances impact the diversity, abundance and activity of soil microorganisms, and discusses both CLPP and functional diversity; how it is measured and the different methods that are used.
His objective was to develop a method to minimize any homogenization effects caused of sieving, as well as capture the full range of soil heterogeneity present in organic horizons. He hypothesized that the modified method would decrease the variability among replicate samples, which would increase the precision of the method. Swallow discusses soil types sampled, overviews the apparatus, discusses the precision of the modified method, and the conclusion of his research. This presentation was a part of the Alberta Soil Science Workshop in February 2015.
