Purpose:

The purpose of this lab was to start to analyze the soil we had obtained in the beginning of the semester. We calculated the water content of our soil and created our non-flooded plate. We also found out the pH and set up our samples in order to find the texture of it next class.

Prodecure:

In order to find water percentage I used the weight I had of it from the beginning of the semester which was 26.3g. I then found the dry weight which was 21.1g. I then subtracted the weight of the Petri dish from both of the weights which was 11.2g. In order to find the percent of water I divided the cry weight by the wet soil multiplied by 100. This then ended up to be (9.9/15.1)x100 which equaled 34.4% water.

In order to find the pH I put 3 mL of soil into a Falcon tube and filled it roughly to the 8 mL mark with D.I. water. We let it sit then took out 1 mL of the water on top and put it in a centrifuge to tube and mixed it in the vortex for a minute. We then put in the pH paper and compared the color of it to find the pH. The pH of my sample was 6.5.

We then made a non-flooded plate with our samples. We added a small amount of water to the Petri dish in order to moisten the soil and not flood it. We were instructed to come in and look at it after 24, 96, and the following week on the dissecting microscope in order to see if there were any ciliates.

We added a dispersing agent to our falcon tubes and stored them to look at the following week in order to determine texture.

Conclusion:

This lab helped us to calculate the water content as well as find out the pH of our soil. This helps us to classify everyones soil a little better. Knowing the differences in the soil it can help us to figure out what factors may have changed the results in finding ciliates or not.