A sterile environment for growing, and monitoring, micro-organisms under a range of soil matric potentials

The energy status of soil water, as defined by the soil matric potential, plays an important role in regulating the dynamics of all soil organisms. In particular the relations between soil matric potential and soil microbes have been well documented. We have built a simple, reproducible, and inexpensive tension table designed to equilibrate soil samples in a sterile environment, or in an environment that ensures specific populations of soil micro-organisms are protected from competing populations.