Soils Module. In 'Ecological Field Monitoring Protocols Manual using the Ecological Monitoring System Australia'

This module is one of many that form the Ecological Field Monitoring Protocols Manual using the Ecological Monitoring System Australia (EMSA), available at https://emsa.tern.org.au/documents. This Soils Module provides the procedures and guidelines for describing and characterising the soils within the core monitoring plot. It facilitates the conversion of soil properties into volumetric measures and enables the collection of soil samples for various downstream laboratory tests and analyses, including soil chemistry texts and soil metagenomics analysis. The soil description and survey procedures align with the national guidelines for surveying land and vegetation, including the Australian Soil and Land Survey Field Handbook (colloquially known as the Yellow Book; The National Committee on Soils and Terrain 2009), Guidelines for Surveying Soil and Land Resources (commonly referred to as the Blue Book; McKenzie et al. 2008) and the Australian Soil Classification (Isbell and The National Committee on Soil and Terrain 2021).

The Soils Module covers the procedures and guidelines to conduct four survey protocols. The protocols include the following:

• Soil sub-pit and soil metagenomics
• Soil sample pit
• Soil site observation and pit characterisation
• Soil bulk density.

Protocols from the Soils Module can be conducted using either a single protocol or a combination of protocols based on the specific requirements and objectives of a project. The Soil bulk density protocol works well with either Soil sample pit protocol or Soil site observation and pit characterisation protocol, utilising the already excavated soil pit to obtain bulk density samples.

The Soil sub-pit and soil metagenomics protocol procedure allows for the surveyor to incorporate metagenomics sampling into the soil sub-pit sampling workflow. Within the Monitor app, there is the option to collect soil sub-pits without metagenomics, however it is encouraged that practitioners collect metagenomics and soil sub-pit together.