Exploring the soil under your feet with buried tea bags and undies?

2021-04-16

The project aims to verify whether the decomposition of cotton pants can be used as a simple reference to soil health and quality. This method has been practised by farmers in Canada for several years, but has not yet been scientifically studied. For reference, tea bags will also be buried and soil samples taken. After two months, the citizen scientists will dig up the "evidence" again and send it to the laboratory together with a soil sample. There, the pants, or what is left of them in the soil after two months, are photographed in a standardised way and compared with the Tea Bag Index, which has been used to record the decomposition of plant material in a standardised way since 2010. Based on the results and the analysis of the soil sample, the citizen scientists will also receive feedback on the soil quality of their fields, meadows and beds.