Ecotron Soft Opening

University of Idaho’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences will celebrate the soft opening on May 29 of a unique facility where researchers will study the interrelationship between deep soil communities and ecosystem processes.

Funded with a $18.9 million U.S. National Science Foundation grant obtained in October 2021, the Deep Soil Ecotron will encompass 24 heavily instrumented lysimeters containing soil columns, in which scientists will have the ability to manipulate environmental conditions including temperature, soil moisture and gasses.

The Ecotron will accommodate soil analysis down to 3 meters deep, which is the greatest depth of any research facility on earth. Some of the lysimeters will initially be filled with loose-packed dirt for testing of operations and sensors. In-tact soil cores will soon be taken from locations of interest, such as U of I’s Sandpoint Organic Agricultural Center, to replace the loose dirt in the eco-units, providing researchers with a better glimpse of how changing conditions affect the soil microbiome. Each filled lysimeter weighs about 9 tons.

Renovations of space within the J.W. Martin Lab at the Moscow campus have been completed to house the Ecotron. Lysimeter units should be fully installed this fall, and the project should be completed, tested and ready to accommodate research projects by the fall of 2026.

Professor Michael Strickland and Associate Professor Zachary Kayler, both with the Department of Soil and Water Systems, are the project’s principal investigators.

Kayler believes having the building renovations complete and the Ecotron ready for systems testing will drive interest in the facility and spur proposals for research projects involving collaborators from throughout the world.

“It’s a lot easier to get people to buy into it if the lights are on,” Kayler said.

Researchers will be able to monitor experiments in real time and manipulate variables within lysimeter units remotely using their cell phones. The facility will accommodate soil temperatures ranging from 23 degrees to 104 degrees.

“We can manipulate and look at future climate scenarios and look at how things we’re going to rely on in the future are going to respond to that change,” Strickland said. “The Ecotron should also give us a better understanding of contributions from plants above ground, carbon sequestration and root growth in deep soils, which I don’t think we have a good answer to.”

Experts with the College of Art and Architecture are helping to design a soil-themed motif for entryways, halls and conference rooms to impress upon visitors that they’re entering a world-class facility.

Plans are also in the works to use the Ecotron for evaluating imaging technology using soundwaves to detect objects such as tree roots below ground without having to dig.

The project has generated considerable interest off campus. For example, the director of the federal National Science Foundation has touted the Ecotron in presentations about the importance of Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research grants (EPSCoR). Furthermore, an advisory board comprising collaborators from several other institutions has been formed to guide research priorities at the Ecotron.

The community is invited to attend the soft opening on May 29 from 10:30 a.m. to noon. A short program will be held at 10:45 a.m. The Deep Soil Ecotron is in the J.W. Martin Laboratory located at 1355 W. Sixth St. in Moscow.

Published in Catching Up with CALS