Electrostatic Method to Remove Particulate Organic Matter from SoilStewart B Wuest 1, Catherine L Reardon 1
1USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Soil and Water Conservation Research Unit
Removing recently deposited and incompletely decomposed plant material from soil samples reduces the influence of temporary seasonal inputs on soil organic carbon measurements. Attraction to an electrostatically charged surface can be used to quickly remove a substantial amount of particulate organic matter.