Soil characterization program

The Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory is accepting freshly collected soil sample submissions through the Molecular Observation Network (MONet) soil characterization program. This soil sample call will contribute to the development of the publicly accessible database composed of molecular and microscale information on the composition and structure of soils, water, microbial communities, and biogenic emissions. The program is open to soil sample submissions from the broad scientific community, including universities, national laboratories, large research projects, and networks. The goal is to accumulate molecular-scale soil data from across 20 different ecoregions in the United States. 

If a soil sample submission proposal is approved, EMSL staff will ship a standardized sampling kit with instructions for recording metadata and collecting soil samples for processing and analysis. Up to 6 core collection events can be submitted by an individual investigator and up to 21 for multi-investigator research teams. Archived or previously collected cores will not be accepted through this call.

Soil sample submissions will be evaluated based on the following:

• representation of ecoregions and of land-use diversity
• environmental compliance
• validation of geographic field site locations. 

For more details, review the soil sample submission call information or email the MONet team.