Why do we take intact cores at OptiSoil?

Well for a couple of reasons, it gives a good opportunity to view the whole profile back in the lab and record it so we can go back and look at it in conjunction with the lab analysis. Another reason is so we can sample within the horizons. What we do is take the core, make an inspection to ensure when we do the depth increments, we aren't combining two horizons, this way we can accurately account for the vertical variability.

Here's a good example where we can compare the cores with spontaneous dispersion that has been predicted across this field. 

The sampling is done with a Geoprobe core, with a plastic liner. The core is punched, plastic liner is removed, barcoded and sent to the lab for analysis.