Home About Us Our Services Publications Testing Submissions Contact Us Links

September 2009

Welcome to the September 2009 edition of Fertile Minds, the newsletter of Sydney Environmental & Soil Laboratory.

We have recently fleshed out our mailing list from our existing records, so there is a possibility that we're not up to date with your current details. If you would like to verify your details (name, company, e-mail address), please go to the bottom of the e-mail message you received and click on "Update Profile/Email Address". This will take you to an "Update" page. Click on "Submit". You will be sent an e-mail message with a link marked "Update your profile". Click on that link and you will be taken to a new page where you can change your details and save them. You also have the option of unsubscribing there if you prefer.

If you have any questions you would like answered in Fertile Minds, please write to info@sesl.com.au. If you have any special requirements, we would be pleased to talk with you and tailor a package and price. Please contact the office on (02) 9980 6554 or write to us at info@sesl.com.au.

If you have received our newsletter by mistake or would like to be removed from our mailing list, please go to the bottom of the e-mail you received and click on Safe Unsubscribe. This action will remove you immediately and you won't hear from us again.

In this issue

• The Loam Ranger – Glyphosate
• Understanding P fertilisers
• Plant-directed bioaccumulation of limiting elements
• New water quality instrument
• Did you know ... ? – World’s oldest houses in Victoria

The Loam Ranger – Glyphosate

Dear Loam Ranger,

If I think someone’s been spraying glyphosate around my property, how can I prove it?

Glyphosate is the most common herbicide that we at SESL see used to kill trees, and often features in neighbourhood disputes. SESL offers a service for the detection of glyphosate in soil, plant tissues and water. This article provides a background to glyphosate and explains how to collect samples for analysis.

Click here for info on how it works and how to collect samples (800 words, 3 minutes)

Understanding P fertilisers

Several forms of phosphorus (P) fertilisers are available. As this article explains, they are all comparable. You should base your decisions on price and availability.

Click here for info on the different forms of P fertilisers (650 words, 3 minutes)

Plant-directed bioaccumulation of limiting elements

Fertile soils the world over show similar compositions and ratios of nutrient elements. We can call the ideal balance of nutrients the “window of life”. Even when the geology is poor in certain elements needed by plants (and consequently animals), the topsoil is nevertheless closer to the ideal window of life than either the geology or the subsoil.

Put another way, the essential nutrients for life seem to accumulate in topsoil in exactly those ratios that are needed by life. How could this happen?

Click here to read about bioaccumulation (500 words, 2 minutes)

New water quality instrument

To meet the growing needs of our clients for monitoring water in the field, SESL has bought a new gadget, the U-50 Multiparameter Water Quality Checker from Horiba (Kyoto, Japan).

The instrument will enable SESL field staff to measure and get immediate readings of pH, dissolved oxygen, electrical conductivity, salinity, total dissolved solids, specific gravity, temperature, turbidity, oxidation–reduction (redox) potential and water depth – all simultaneously.

Click here for more info and a picture of the device (200 words, 1 minute)

Did you know ... ? – World’s oldest houses in Victoria

In what is now western Victoria, from about 30 000 to 18 000 years ago volcanoes erupted. Their remnants can still be seen, notably in what is now called Mount Eccles (traditionally called Budj Bim), which holds a crater lake. Lava flows across the land changed the patterns of drainage, and a shallow lake formed. That lake, now called Lake Condah, attracted the first known permanent human habitation in Australia, and possibly the world.

Radiocarbon dating shows that since at least 8000 years ago, until the mid 19th century, the Gunditjmara people farmed eels in the lake. Today, visitors to the lake can still see hundreds of kilometres of channels dug in the volcanic rock and walls of rocks built to hold eel traps.

Click here for more history of Lake Condah and links (300 words, 1 minute)