WK 2

Life Under the City: Assessment of Urban Soils

This half day workshop provides an introduction to observe and sample urban soils and soil biota as well as measure their characteristics. Participants will be transported to the Johns Hopkins University Homewood Campus where they will conduct hands-on exercises in the laboratory and in the field. We will examine 1 m deep soil cores from a variety of urban, agricultural and forest land uses, conduct in situ texture analysis, sample soil fauna (earthworms and arthropods), and demonstrate decomposition experiments. In the laboratory we will examine soils and soil biota more closely, under microscope. Participants should dress appropriately for field work. The workshop is intended for educators, students and citizen scientists who are interested in urban ecosystems and planning to collect field data on urban soils. The workshop is linked to the Organized Oral Session: Urban Soil Biodiversity: A New Frontier in Ecological Science and Education. Participants will be transported back to the Convention Center.