Soil Porosity

   

     We found our pore space to be 92mL because we had to pour 92mL of water onto the soil for the water to break the surface of the soil. To calculate the soil porosity, we needed to find the percent of the volume of dry soil that could be filled by water. In other words, soil porosity is the percent of the amount of open space in a given volume of soil compared to the total volume of soil.

92mL of water / 200 mL of soil = .46 x 100 = 46% porosity

Pour it up, pour it up

     The data showed us that there is in fact a lot of empty space between the solid matter that makes up soil in a given amount of soil. Almost half of the volume of our soil was composed of empty space that the water was able to fill. This also allows us to understand how harmful polluted runoff water can be to soil; if the polluted water is able to take up almost half the space of a given amount of soil, the water can do serious damage to the soil and the microorganisms within it.