A MANUAL SOIL CORING SYSTEM FOR SOIL-ROOT STUDIES

Factors such as small plot size, restricted access, and remote sites c an often limit adequate sampling of belowground components in field re search. Thus, the objective of this study was to design and construct a simple, inexpensive, portable soil coring system for rapid deploymen t under field conditions which eliminated some or all of the above men tioned limitations. Components of the system included a manual driver of adjustable weight, a manual core extractor, and steel core tubes wi th clear plastic (butyrate) liners which encase the soil core for retr ieval and transport. This system proved to be reliable and efficient i n repeated field trials, causing minimal plot disturbance. The use of Styrofoam plugs to separate multiple core samples within the plastic l iner drastically reduced the time spent on handling individual samples . Continuous soil cores measuring up to 1 m long can also be collected with this system. The use of plastic liners also greatly facilitated the transport and storage of samples. This low cost system was conveni ent to operate and assemble or disassemble in a field setting. The uni t proved to be effective in cases where mechanized approaches were pro hibited or unavailable.