One Dry Valley Soil sample

Expedition: Dry Valleys Ecosystem Study 2022
Teacher: Bill Henske
This is a video of one soil sample from the Antarctic Dry Valleys. We use 100g samples (3.5 oz) of soil and wash the animals through a sieve into a counting dish. In this video you will see some of the grid lines of the counting dish. As we go through the sample, we count the number of each taxa (type of animal). For nematodes, we also record their sex, stage and species. In a summer season we might look at several hundred samples. How many animals can you see? For more see my PolarTREC journal.