Environmental laboratory of the Chair of Soil Science and Geoecology

The laboratory deals with the chemical and physical analysis of soil, sediment and water samples as well as plant materials and atmospheric aerosols.

During their geoecology studies, students carry out practicals in the laboratory. In addition, students from various departments work on their final theses in the laboratory. There is close cooperation with the Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Didactics of Chemistry, the Department of Ecology and Nature Conservation and the Institute of Geosciences at the University of Potsdam as well as the Laboratory for Environmental and Raw Materials Analysis of the Chair of Geochemistry and Economic Geology at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

The following investigations are among others carried out:

• Grain size determination of soils
• Measurement of pH values
• Determination of soil organic matter
• Analysis of carbon, nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorus in soils
• Determination of cation exchange capacity
• Investigation of density and volume ratios
• Determination of anions and cations in water or soil eluates 
• Mercury analysis of solids
• Multi-element analysis of solids
• Analysis of humic substances in aqueous phases
• Microscope-based spatially resolved element determination ...

Laboratory equipment for environmental physics laboratory

• Sieve shaker for dry sieving
• Sieve shaker for wet sieving
• Laser diffractometer
• kf-determination plant
• ku-pF determination system
• pF pressure pots 5 bar and 15 bar
• Aggregate stability

Laboratory equipment environmental chemistry laboratory

• Ball mill, centrifuge, ultrapure water system, ...
• Heavy metal digestion apparatus
• photometer
• UV/VIS/NIR fluorescence spectrometer
• Anion and cation chromatograph
• Mercury analyzer
• X-ray fluorescence analysis
• Microscope-coupled laser-induced break-down spectroscopy
• Water isotope analyzer