Arborists Governments

Soil life sensors support urban forestry research by Vineland Research and Innovation Center in Canada

Bodemlevensensoren ondersteunen stedelijk bosbouwonderzoek door Vineland Research and Innovation Center in Canada

From Research to Bloom

During a working visit in, Canada, Dr. Nadina Galle, partnerships developer of SoilMania, had the opportunity to see SoilMania's soil life sensors in action at the Vineland Research and Innovation Center.

As an independent private research institute, Vineland's success depends on tangible results for its clients. Here's what Nadina learned about how Vineland researchers "use SoilMania's soil life sensors in their research.

"These trees were once used in one of our studies, now they are thriving in their forever home, here on the Vineland campus." After touring Vineland, Nadina Galle sits at a picnic table surrounded by mature maple trees and is in conversation with Darby McGrath, senior research scientist and Charlene Williams, research technician for Environmental Horticulture, at the Vineland Research and Innovation Center. A great time to ask some questions.

Why oxygen?

Ironically, Darby and her team first bought soil life sensors from SoilMania to track a trial of drought trees. A rainy summer in Ontario turned those plans upside down. The drought trial accidentally became a waterlogging trial.

"The measurements we took with the sensors show us the relationship between the amount of oxygen in the soil and the amount of water available in the soil," says Charlene. There appears to be a critical relationship between these. Once the water reaches a certain level, you lose respiration; there is too little oxygen left for everything that lives in the soil.... This can have disastrous consequences for trees.

Strangely enough, the symptoms of a waterlogged tree and those of a drought-stricken tree look almost identical: dry, drooping, browning leaves. When the damage to a tree is accurately observed, it is often too late to save the tree. "This is exactly the problem," Darby sighs. "How are you supposed to know what's really wrong without looking at the soil? We need to start looking more below the surface."

Why oxygen? It should come as no surprise that soil oxygen is a key factor for successful tree growth, but it is often overlooked. In fact, we are often so focused on using sensors to optimize irrigation that we forget that sensors can also help us signal when the soil is just too wet.

Soil life sensors installed at the Vineland Research and Innovation Center campus.

Darby McGrath (left) and Charlene Williams (right) on the Vineland Research and Innovation Center campus with one of their soil life sensors.

Clear dashboard

"When we searched the available technologies," Darby says, "we couldn't find anything that measures oxygen like this soil life sensor does."

In addition to moisture and temperature, SoilMania's soil life sensors measure electrical conductivity (salinity) , pH and oxygen. "That's why SoilMania's soil life sensors are so interesting to us," says Darby, "because they also measure soil oxygen." SoilMania combines the use of sensors with a clear dashboard, which shows the data from the sensors in real time on a smartphone, tablet or computer. . "The dashboards take away the stress of having to interpret the data," says Charlene. "This makes the data accessible to everyone involved, even if they are not soil experts. This is how we create and maintain better growing conditions for trees ."

Clear dashboard

"Using sensors can help municipalities, landscape architects, landscaping contractors and arborists get the soil conditions right first," Darby explains. "If the basics aren't right, you'll run into problems later ."

Yet the introduction of soil life sensors in Canada is still in its infancy. According to Darby and Charlene, this is not due to the product itself, but rather a change in mindset is required. Darby explains: "I feel we are at an important 'pre-sensor' point in Canada

Being open to the use of sensors is almost a litmus test of how far along cities are in their "soil journey. "A city won't invest in sensors if it doesn't see the importance of soil health to tree health," he said.

If we can scientifically demonstrate that healthy, vital soils have a tangible effect on the growth and lifespan of trees and can back this up with figures, cities will start to design and maintain tree growth sites differently. Sensors can certainly help us do this.

Opinions

For cities wishing to embark on a soil journey, Darby and Charlene have some advice:

Start small. Pick a few locations where you can test sensors. The data passed on may show that there is still something wrong in the soil. It may not be the result you had hoped for, but you can learn a lot from it and make fact-based decisions to improve the situation. Do not rely entirely on replanting guarantees of two to three years. Many trees die only after four or five years due to an accumulation of stress.Conditions in the soil are essential for good regrowth.... Sensors can help understand immediately which trees need extra attention when. After determining the baseline situation, sensors can often replace or at least supplement soil testing. You would be shocked how little soil testing takes place in cities. Sampling is expensive, and even then people don't test the soil qualities a tree needs. The initial cost may be slightly higher with sensors, but the added value of real-time data that does not require an expert to obtain and interpret pays for itself over and over again.

Conclusion

"We've always known about urban trees dying an early death, but didn't always know why. Now we do, and the good news is: many of those deaths are preventable. We just need to use the tools at our disposal to diagnose and take action before we lose the lifeblood of our urban future" Darby said.