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Data Collection Date: 07.08.18
Using the Alfred Howe Greenway trail as a marker, soil samples were collected from the east and west divisions of the forested land spanning away from the trail, with soil samples taken throughout the entire length of the trail, while allowing them to be subdivided into two general areas: (1) Historically Forested Area (South part of trail) and (2) Historically Landfill Area (North part of trail).
Photo 1: L2S3 (Location 2, Sample 2) collected soil sample (left). Soil sample collection in progress, ruler measuring depth of dug hole (4.0 inches) and soil collected (3 shovel scoops) at hole depth (right).
The exact location of where the former landfill ends was unclear. However, buried tarp was found at the mid-point of the trail, buried in the direction of the former landfill area. Reading through government archives, there was mention of eliminating water pollution through having the area covered in a landfill cover, preventing rainfall from dislodging any buried landfill materials, limiting pollution entering nearby bodies of water in the form of runoff.
Photo 2: Observations made while sampling, would be interesting to follow the visible tarp to see if it encloses the landfill area.
A total of twenty soil samples were collected; ten for each designated area. A modified random sampling strategy was used from the one implemented in Blog Post 5. This was primarily done to ensure samples were taken in their desired transect, which was one of the problems faced when using the previous sampling strategy.
The new sampling design consists of generating: (1) a random number of paces along the trail (0 to location end), (2) generating a random East or West side of trail designation (0 to 1) and (3) generating a random number of paces 90º from the trail (0 to 50).
Once three random numbers were generated for each sample, samples were numbered in order of the number of paces taken along the trail, in order to allow samples to be taken while proceeding from the north point of the trail to the south point, avoiding going back to the start of the trail for each sample to count the number of required paces along the trail for that sample.
Photo 3: Scanned field journal entry of randomly generated location of each sample. L2S1 – L2S10 correspond to samples taken off the north end of the trail (former landfill), L1S1 – L1S10 correspond to samples taken off the south end of the trail (historically forested).
There were less problems encountered in implementing this experimental design. If a randomly generated location was unaccessible (ex. extremely dense in vegetation or a very steep slope), the nearest accessible location was used to collect the soil sample.
Photo 4: Collected soil samples from both locations.
When collecting the soil samples, there was a very noticeable difference in soil colour and texture between samples collected from the former landfill area and samples collected from the historically forested area, as well as between samples collected from the East and West side of the trail.
It is interesting to be able to visually observe the soil differences in each area, making it appear that former landfill activities could have a long lasting impact on the surrounding area. However, these samples must undergo soil testing to formally analyse any soil discrepancies.
Photo 5: Visual difference in soil colour and texture between soil sample collected at the historically forested area of the trail (left), and soil sample collected at the former landfill area (right).
Enough soil (three shovel scoops) was collected for each sample in order to ensure there was enough soil to undergo pH, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash testing using the Rapitest 1601 Soil Test Kit.
Please note: A portion of the collected soil sample testing results (including recorded topsoil nitrogen levels and soil type classification) are presented in Blog Post 8: Tables and Graphs.
