News — Agriculture

Most of us who live in the city think of soil as “dirt.” However, soil is actually a living environment of underground plants, animals, and microorganisms that, like humans, need food, water and oxygen to survive. Soil gas testing is the process of measuring oxygen, carbon dioxide, methane, radon, and other gases in soil. For example, large-scale composters monitor the gases inside long, narrow piles of plant material and manure called wind-rows. The right combination of moisture, temperature, oxygen and CO2 is required to feed the aerobic microbes that turn the materials into compost. Alternatively, biologists measure CO2 or methane...