Hi,
I want to measure total Carbon and Nitrogen in soil cores and was wondering how much this analysis costs. Any approximate number would be helpful.
Best wishes
The costs of biogeochemical analyis depends on what specifically you want to do with the results, ie. how comlete you need the anaysis and it depends if you want this information for solids or liquids. So you need to be a bit more precice. You can have a geochemical analysis of all of the elements .. and if you have the sample of soil just the way you collected it , your costs would run between 400 to 600 , but you only have the major constituents - on the other hand if you just want a rough idea of what is contained in a sample XRF analyis is much cheaper. If you want the microbial compents then you are looking at higher costs. Go to an analytical laboraotry site, and have a look , you will see what I mean for example Bachema or Sakatchewan Research council, analytical laboratory http://www.swisstestinglabs.ch/en/companies/adressliste/bachema-ag.html http://www.src.sk.ca/facilities/pages/environmental-analytical-laboratories.aspx
If you are just after total C and N, then the Carlo Erba method is probably the cheapest way. Some labs will run them about $4-6 per sample prepared, or $5-8 unprepared. Preparation invovles grinding the soils, and weighting out the foil balls that are run in carlo erba. For a consulting gig I just sampled 200 areas for total C and N as a baseline, and charged $2000, and total cost for samples (about 80 unprepared) was about $600.
In Romania, the analysis of one soil samples for C and N costs 18 Euro.
A university service I use sometimes in the USA charges $8 per sample for total C, N and d13C plus d15N. Turn around time is usually 4-6 weeks.
What are the analysis that i need to focus on if am to do a biogeochemical research on a soil sample? I will appreciate a simple list out of all recommended analysis. Thanks
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