Fourth Lab Report: Upland paddy *String beans

FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND NATURAL RESOURCES

SS11403 ENVIRONMENTAL SOIL SCIENCE

          TITLE: PADI HUMA *STRING BEAN

DATE OF SUBMISSION: 28 APRIL 2018

LECTURER: DR. DIANA DEMIYAH MOHD HAMDAN

  

NAME	MATRIC NO
INTAN NATASYA BINTI ABDUL HALIM	BS17160681
JOHN NIELSON ANAK GRIFFIN	BS17110055
LIEW SIN YIN	BS17160664
MOGANANTHENI A/P SEGAR	BS17110509
NURZAHARAH BINTI OMAR BASA	BS17110518
TAN SHI MIN	BS17110516

Soil Sieve Analysis

INTRODUCTION

     Sieve analysis test is also known as the gradation test. It has been used for decades to monitor material quality based on particle size. Sieving is used as sample method which provides several opportunities to discuss more fundamental and detailed particle analysis concepts including distributions, influence of shape and it also allows the comparisons of traditional sieving techniques with other particle characterized testing commonly in industry. In general, sieve analysis has been used to monitor materials quality based on particle size for decades.

     Sieving analysis method have two types which is dry sieving analysis and wet sieving analysis but there are few limitations in sieving analysis. The limitations for dry sieving is that it will not provide accurate results. This is because in dry sieving, mechanical energy is used to make the particles pass through the sieve which creates an attraction among the particles and leads to increase in screen size. Therefore, possibilities of getting accurate result is low. For wet sieving analysis, reliable mass-based results also cannot be obtained. This is because the particles will be suspended in liquid , the particles pass through the square opening of the sieve efficiently and it will be assumed that all particles are round but it could have been elongated particles.

    The importance of sieve analysis is to help determine the particle size distribution. It also widely used in classification of soils and the data obtained is used in the designation of filters for earth dams and to determine the suitability of soil for construction. Sieving also can be used to break agglomerates or “de-lump”. A sieve is an essential part of every pharmaceutical production process and gets rid of oversized contamination to ensure that ingredients and finished product are quality assured.

OBJECTIVE

1. To determine the particle size distribution.

2. To determine the relative proportions of different grain sizes as they are distributed among certain size ranges.

MATERIALS AND APPARATUS

1.      Air-dried soils

2.      Stack of sieves including pan and cover

3.      Weighing balance

4.      Mechanical sieve shaker

5.      Brush

6.      Pestle and mortar

7.      Tray

PROCEDURES

1.      Tree roots, pieces of bark and rocks were removed from the soil samples.

2.      Air-dried soils were break clumps by hand, before air-dried samples were sieved.

3.      The total weight of the sample soil was weighted before sieved.

4.      5 size of mesh sieve were selected.

5.      The sieves must clean. If many soil particles are stuck in the openings, brush was used to poke it out gently without injured the mesh.

6.      A stack of sieves on the mechanical sieve shaker was prepared. The sieve having larger opening sizes were placed above the one having smaller opening size sieve. The pan were set first in the stack, on the top of the biggest mesh size sieve was covered.

7.      The soil was poured and the cover was placed.

8.      The clamps were fixed.

9.      A tray below the opening of the pan was placed to collect the finest particle.

10.   The time was adjusted to 15 minutes and get the shaker going on 40~50.

11.   After the shaker has stopped, the mass of each sieve was measured and retained soil.

12.   If they are particles stuck on the mesh, brush was used to poke it out and collected.

13.   The soil was labelled and kept for future analysis.

RESULTS

Field (50gm of soil used)

Sieve Number	Sieve opening Mesh size	Mass of soil retained on each sieve (g)	Percent of mass retained on each sieve (%) (Rn)	Cumulative percent retained (%Cumulative passing /100% – %Cumulative Retained) (%)	Percent Finer (100 - ∑Rn)
10	2mm	5.86	11.06	11.06	88.94
18	1mm	5.47	10.62	21.38	78.62
20	600µm	3.90	7.36	28.74	71.26
35	500µm	2.36	4.45	33.19	66.81
220	63µm	22.94	43.28	76.47	23.53
pan		12.47	25.53	100	0

Infront A1 (50gm of soil used)

Sieve Number	Sieve opening Mesh size	Mass of soil retained on each sieve (g)	Percent of mass retained on each sieve (%) (Rn)	Cumulative percent retained (%Cumulative passing /100% – %Cumulative Retained) (%)	Percent Finer (100 - ∑Rn)
10	2mm	25.04	47.25	47.25	52.75
18	1mm	6.76	12.75	60.00	40.00
20	600µm	3.35	6.32	66.32	33.68
35	500µm	2.10	3.96	70.28	29.72
220	63µm	7.64	14.42	84.70	15.30
pan		8.11	15.30	100	0

Mangrove (50gm of soil used)

Sieve Number	Sieve opening Mesh size	Mass of soil retained on each sieve (g)	Percent of mass retained on each sieve (%) (Rn)	Cumulative percent retained (%Cumulative passing /100% – %Cumulative Retained) (%)	Percent Finer (100 - ∑Rn)
10	2mm	11.09	20.92	20.92	79.08
18	1mm	5.69	10.74	31.66	68.34
20	600µm	3.52	6.64	38.3	61.70
35	500µm	2.30	4.34	42.64	57.36
220	63µm	25.22	47.58	90.22	9.78
pan		5.18	9.77	99.99	0.01

ODEC (50gm of soil used)

Sieve Number	Sieve opening Mesh size	Mass of soil retained on each sieve (g)	Percent of mass retained on each sieve (%) (Rn)	Cumulative percent retained (%Cumulative passing /100% – %Cumulative Retained) (%)	Percent Finer (100 - ∑Rn)
10	2mm	1.89	3.57	3.57	96.43
18	1mm	1.71	3.23	6.80	93.20
20	600µm	1.91	3.60	10.40	89.60
35	500µm	1.85	3.49	13.89	86.11
220	63µm	38.45	72.55	86.44	13.56
pan		7.19	13.57	101.01	0

Parking Lot (50gm of soil used)

Sieve Number	Sieve opening Mesh size	Mass of soil retained on each sieve (g)	Percent of mass retained on each sieve (%) (Rn)	Cumulative percent retained (%Cumulative passing /100% – %Cumulative Retained) (%)	Percent Finer (100 - ∑Rn)
10	2mm	24.93	47.04	47.04	52.96
18	1mm	8.60	16.23	63.27	36.73
20	600µm	5.49	10.36	73.63	26.37
35	500µm	2.45	4.62	78.25	21.75
220	63µm	4.73	8.92	87.17	12.83
pan		6.80	12.83	100	0

 Figure 1: Sieve Analysis of Field’s Soil.

Figure 2: Sieve Analysis of Infront A1’s Soil.

Figure 3: Sieve Analysis of Mangrove’s Soil.

Figure 4: Sieve Analysis of Parking Lot’s Soil.

Figure 5: Sieve Analysis of ODEC’s Soil.

DISCUSSION

Soils usually made up of combination of sand, silt and clay. These differences of texture are cause by weathering process. Sand particles is the largest and follow by silt and clay. To differentiate the texture of this combination, sieve analysis is used to determine the particle size distribution of the course and fine aggregates. The sieve analysis operated with mechanical sieve shaker. The machine also consists of five size of mesh sieve which are 2mm, 1mm, 0.6 mm, 0.5 mm and 0.0063 mm. During the operation, all of the soil particle will go through to each of the mesh sieve for 15 minutes. In this experiment, there are five type of dry soils that will be used for the sieve analysis which are parking lot’s soil, in front A1’s soil, mangrove soil, ODEC’s soil and field’s soil.

          From the graph above, it shows that field’s soil have almost same pattern as in front A1’s soil except for the mangrove’ soil, parking lot’s soil and ODEC’s soil as the graph start to drastic drop at 0.5 mm mesh sieve. Each of the soils have different type of percent passing as the soil past through 0.0063 mm. It is clearly that the finest soil is parking lot’s soil with percentage of 23.53%. Nearly 15.30% for field’s soil and 13.56% for ODEC’s soil. The in front A1’s is 12.83%. Only a small percentage with 9.78% of mangorve soil that can pass through the mesh sieve. As shown in this graph, the relationship between percentage passing and sieve size is inversely.

          Based on the theory, soil that has high percentage of passing will be probably consists of silt and clay. Hence, soil that show the highest percentage passing is parking lot’s soil. This is because silt has size ranges of 0.05 to 0.002 mm while clay is less than 0.002 mm. However, in the graph plot for mangrove’s soil, parking lot’s soil and ODEC’s soil, the percentage passing for each of the soil start declined suddenly at sieve size of 0.5 mm. This show that these three soils are mainly made up of silt and clay and explained that these three soils show different graph pattern other than field’s soil and in front A1’s soil.

          In this experiment also, there are also some gross error or parallax error that occur during the experiment. Before the experiment begin, the initial mass of the soil samples need to weight accurately to prevent the overweight or underweight of the soil samples. Meanwhile, before using the mechanical sieve shaker, each of the sieve have to be clean to prevent any soil particles that stuck in the openings that will affect the result of the experiments. The frequency of the shaking also need to be corrected to prevent the unstable movement of soil particle in the sieve mesh.

CONCLUSION

In order to carry out the sieve analysis test, a 2mm, 1mm, 0.6mm, 0.5mm and 0.063mm of the opening mesh sieve sizes are used. The number of sieves used indicates what size of aggregate will fall through to the next layer. 100g of air dried sample soil was poured on the first layer of sieve and shaken by mechanical sieve shaker. The weight of retained soils on each of the layer was recorded. After weighing each sieve samples, calculations to determine the percentage of retained aggregate and cumulative aggregate retained on each of the sieve were carried out.

          Sieves can be used to separate both fine and coarse aggregates into different particle sizes. We can conclude that sieve analysis is simple and can be used to determine the particle size distribution of aggregate. From this sieve analysis test, we can see that different layer of sieve for the soil sample give different weight. This prove that different soil have different soil particles.

REFERENCES

Colin Brown, Clive Davis, Nicola Brown, Tony Paterson (2008). Education for chemical engineers. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1749772818300058

David. Sieve Analysis Calculation and Graph. 911Metallurgist. February 11, 2017. Retrieved by April 27, 2018. https://www.911metallurgist.com/sieve-analysis-calculations-graph/#Sieve-Analysis-Lab-Report-Discussion-Conclusion

Practical 2: Sieving. Pharmatechg7.blogspot.my. 28 December 2013. Retrieved by April 27, 2018. http://pharmatechg7.blogspot.my/2013/12/practical-2-sieving.html

Retsch GmbH Haan. (2009) Sieve analysis. Retrieved from http://www.mep.net.au/wpmep/wpcontent/uploads/2013/07/MEP_expert_guide_sieving_en.pdf

Soil Nutrient Analysis

INTRODUCTION

          Every single plant needs different type of macronutrient and micronutrient. Even though in the soil there are lots of nutrient, but only nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium that commonly deficient widespread in the soils. This is because these nutrients are required in plant as nitrogen is important for protein synthesis and growth, phosphorus is needed for cell division, root development, flowering and fruiting meanwhile potassium is necessary for photosynthesis, disease resistance and seed development. Nitrogen nutrient needed is responsible for rapid foliage growth and green colour. Also, easily leaches from soil. Atmospheric nitrogen is a source of soil nitrogen. Some plants such as legumes fix atmospheric nitrogen in their roots, otherwise fertilizer factories use nitrogen from the air to make ammonium sulphate, ammonium nitrate and urea. When applied to soil, nitrogen is converted to mineral form, nitrate, so that plants can take it up. Phosphorus helps transfer energy from sunlight to plants. Also, stimulates early root and plants growth, and hastens maturity. These nutrients promote root formation and growth. Other than that, affects quality of seed, fruit, and flower production also increased disease resistance. Phosphorus does not leach from soil readily. Next, potassium increases disease resistance and vigour of plants, helps form and move starches, sugars and oils in plants.

However, deficiencies of other nutrient such as magnesium, sulfur and some other nutrients also occur in other regions but mostly affect by other factors such as highly weathering activity in some region especially in the southeastern states or places with high rainfall. There is also another factor that can thrive the decreasing of nutrients in soil which is the pH of soils, especially in the dry states for manganese, iron, zinc and cooper. In addition, there is also some location that contain minerals in the first place but the weathering process did not occur that much such as glacier ice areas with moderate to low rainfall where potassium is deficit.

          Due to the environmental factors that cause these minerals to loss in the soils, human have figure a better management on how to improvise the quantity of nitrogen and potassium. Even though human has their way to increase soil fertility management, they also cause widespread environmental issues such overuse of fertilizers, misuse of animal manures, high number of animal in limited area distribute to the surface and underground pollution.

OBJECTIVES

1.     To measure the amount of sulfate, phosphate and nitrate in the soils.

2.     To identify which soil have the optimum mineral contain in the soils.

3.     To learn proper way to use HACH kit.

4.     To meet the nutrient requirement of the plant.

MATERIALS AND APPARATUS

1.     5 samples of 20 grams dried soil samples

2.     Distilled water

3.     200ml beaker

4.     0.45 µm membrane filter paper

5.     Vacuum pump

6.     Magnetic stirrer

7.     Spatula

8.     High density polyethene (HDPE) bottle

PROCEDURE

1.     The soils were handled by using gloves, bare hands soil handling was avoided.

2.     The soil that has been air dried outside the lab was weighed. To ensure the moisture is completely dried out, the soil was touched. The result was recorded.

3.     20g dried soil samples were taken and put in the beaker separately for each type of soil (the rest of the dried soil were keep for further analysis, the soil was returned back to the drying rack outside the lab).

4.     50ml of distilled water was added together with the soil sample.

5.     The magnetic stirred was used to mix well the sample solution for 20 minutes.

6.     The mixture was allowed to stand undisturbed for at least 10 minutes. The clarity of the solution varies, the clearer the better.

7.     Then, the solution was filtered by using the 0.45 µm membrane filter paper using vacuum pump. Clearer liquid was filtered first compare to the murky ones. Using the HACH kit, the filtered solution was stored in HDPE bottles for macronutrient analysis.

RESULTS

Types of soils	Sulphate Reagent (mg/L SO42-)	Phosphate Reagent (mg/L PO4 3-)	Nitrate reagent (mg/L NO3)
Field	85.30	0.15	1.57
Parking Lot	19.00	0.08	0.83
Mangrove	<3.50	<3.50	1.37
ODEC	8.00	0.25	2.43
Infront A1	57.00	0.18	4.70

DISCUSSION

Soil is a major source of nutrient needed by plants to growth. There are three main nutrients (macronutrients) for soils which are nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). Nitrogen is a key element in plant growth. It can be found in all plant cells which is in pant proteins and hormones, also in chlorophyll. Potassium is needed because helps plants to overcome drought stress and can improve fruit quality. Also, the N-P-K value is a series of three numbers which represent the percentage of each nutrient in the mixture.

Firstly, the field soil has the highest sulphate content which is 85 for the phosphate content is 0.15 respectively and the nitrate content 1.6. Next, parking lot soil sulphate content is 19, phosphate content is 0.08 and the nitrate content is 0.8. For, the mangrove soil the sulphate and phosphate content is same which is absorbance <3.5 and nitrate content is 1.4. Infront A1 soil, it has the highest phosphate content among the other soils which is 0.25 followed by the sulphate content is 8. Also, the lowest nitrate content is the infront A1 soil which is -2.4. ODEC soil sulphate content is 57 respectively and phosphate content 0.18. Nitrate content for this soil is the highest which is 4.7.

From the results, it shows that the mangrove soil has the least nutrient content compared to other soils. This may cause the lack of growth of plant on mangrove soil.

CONCLUSION

In this experiment, 680 Sulphate reagent, 490 Preact PV-phosphorus and 355 N Nitrate HRPP reagent were used to determine the amount of nutrient content in the soil which are sulphate, phosphate and nitrate. Nitrate, phosphate and sulphate helps in production of plants, flowering and fruiting a plant. It is essential for us to know the availability of these nutrients to manage a proper planting. From this experiment we have found out the availability of these nutrients and we have discovered that the highest sulphate content were in soil sample collected from soil and the highest phosphate content were found in soil sample collected from infront A1 area. Nitrate on the other hand were found in beach soil with highest value. Thus, can be conclude that mangrove soil is not the good type of soil for planting this plant because has a least or lowest nutrient which is sulphate, phosphate, and nitrate compare to the other soil. It can be seen at the mangrove soil shows no paddy plant growth or germinate in our planting project.

REFERENCES

Department of Primary Industries. Retrieved from https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/soils/improvement/plant-nutrients.

J.L Hills, C.H. Jones, C.Cutler. Nutrient Management.sare.org.2012. Retrived by April 26, 2018. https://www.sare.org/Learning-Center/.../Nutrient-Management-An-Introduction.

KIM H. TAN. (2009) Environmental Soil Science: Third Edition. By Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business.

NC State Extension Publications. (2010). Soil and Plant Nutrients. Retrieved from https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/extension-gardener-handbook/1-soils-and-plant-nutrients.

UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program. 2017. "Soil Nutrient Management." What is Sustainable Agriculture? UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.http://asi.ucdavis.edu/programs/sarep/what-is-sustainable/ agriculture/ practices/ soil-nutrient-management.