WSU Looks To Electric Current To Measure Soil Health

In the ongoing effort to monitor soil health, Washington State University researchers have turned to electric currents as a new tool. Researcher, Abdul Mohamed, said they measure microorganism activity levels by measuring electric currents on electrodes placed in the soil.

"It goes back to a fundamental idea in biology that all life, we generate energy by digesting food. We generate energy in the form of electrons. For the microbes in the soil we can allow them to use solid electrodes as an electron receptor to measure the rate of their metabolism by measuring electric current.”

This Mohamed noted, gives researchers a way of assessing really fine measurements of metabolic rates. He added soil health is important for all kinds of food grown, so it's imperative the Ag industry keeps soil health and management a top priority.

"One of the issues that we face is that most soils are degraded over time and need to come up with new strategies to improve the soil health so we can grow plants.”

Mohamed said the type of sensor they are testing at WSU allows for real fine, quick measurements to assess the effects of management strategy. Research results were recently published in Journal of Electrochemical Society.

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