Effect of Compaction on Plant Growth and Nutrient Uptake

Introduction The ability of soil to sustain a plant's growth is attributed to a number of different factors such as level of compaction, nutrient storage as well as air and water penetration. Each of these factors affect the overall health and growth rate of the plant with soil compaction limiting the advance of roots through the soil column, as well as decreasing the soil porosity. Soil compaction is one of the main reasons which limit …

…to put the results onto the web would also encourage students to put their own data in. Differences in the way students collected the soil out of the PVC cylinders may also had an effect on the differences seen in the results data table with samples having high and low results, considering these cylinders were all the same size and shape the overall difference between the samples should not have been as high as observed.