Photo by Ivan Bandura on Unsplash

Push fields and sampling locations into SoilStack via API, make stratification requests and receive sampling locations back within 1-2 business days.

SoilStack was designed as a fully open-source platform to address key bottlenecks in the soil sampling process. First, by generating sampling locations using publicly available data and a scientifically rigorous stratification approach. Second, by simplifying the in-field sample collection process with tools to guide soil samplers to each predetermined sampling location, and third, by automatically capturing critical sampling metadata.

Since 2021, working in collaboration with partners in the USA and Europe, SoilStack has been used to stratify and collect soil samples on hundreds of fields; with partner feedback guiding the development process. The result is a platform that can be seamlessly integrated into existing Measurement, Reporting, and Verification  processes (MRVs), resulting in a fully automated web service that allows users to stratify hundreds of fields per request.

Why?

The financial benefits for producers participating in carbon and ecosystem service markets are often related to the “uncertainty” of soil carbon stock estimates, which are in turn related to the soil sampling protocols used. While a field may appear homogeneous, it may have significant variations in properties that directly relate to its ability to store soil carbon (e.g. clay content). So, a sampling protocol that does not account for those unseen soil properties or relies on collecting soil samples based on visual differences could lead to higher uncertainty and lower benefits to land stewards. SoilStack allows users to make data-driven decisions about where to sample, capturing the complexity of a site and reducing uncertainty without the time and labor expense of traditional intensive sampling.  

Likewise, simplifying collection and management of sampling metadata (bag ID, GPS location, timestamp, etc) in a fully transparent toolchain both reduces transaction costs and increases trust within carbon and ecosystem service MRV’s while also lowering the in-field documentation burden for samplers

Photo by James Baltz on Unsplash

Whats new?

Over the past year we have made substantial improvements to the SoilStack API and deployed a fully automated stratification web service for site selection. In its current state, SoilStack can now be integrated into Carbon and Ecosystem Service MRV’s to provide stratification and sampling support.

Stratification services – Push field boundaries into SoilStack via API and make stratification requests. Sampling locations will be generated using the web service and posted to the SoilStack app within 1-2 business days. The stratification service’s dynamic settings allow you to decide:

• How and if to create strata
• What sample density to use 
• Where to set field buffers

Sampling Services – Push field boundaries and existing soil sampling locations into SoilStack via API, or use sampling locations generated by the stratification service, and use the platform to:

• Grant field access to soil samplers
• Guide samplers to each sampling location
• Collect and manage sampling metadata
• Export a sample inventory as a CSV to share with the analysis lab

Watch a demo of collecting soil samples using SoilStack here.

If you’d like to find out more, or are interested in a customized demo of these tools, contact us at info@soilstack.io