Student subjects

Use of salts for pF measurements

For many types of Soil Physical measurements to be compared properly, the soil should be brought to a certain pF value. This can for example be done at a sandbox or in in a pressure chamber. However, these methods are often not suitable for soil samples that are in the form of aggregates of other shapes. In literature the option is proposed to use a salt solution in a closed chamber and to use Vapor Equilibration to bring soil samples to a certain pF value. First experiments in our Soil Hydro Physics laboratory have been done and give promising results. further development of this method could be a master thesis topic. Information

K050- unsaturated conductivity measurement

Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity is difficult to measure. A new measurement set up has been developed to measure the hydraulic conductivity at small suctions ( 50cm<h<0cm). This set up has still to be tested in the laboratory. For a student interested in soil physical measurement methods this would be a nice bachelor or master topic. Information

Microplastics in urban environments

Microplastics cause a high degree of concern worldwide, since they are poorly controlled. This pollutant is studied a lot in aquatic environments and more recently also agricultural soils. However, there are few studies involving microplastics in urban spaces. In this context, there are still various potential research questions for a bachelor or master student, such as quantification of the local distribution of microplastics according to different vegetation characteristics or improvement of the laboratory methods for extraction and quantification of microplastics. Information