Our top performing soil analysis service offers a comprehensive range of standard and specialist tests to determine the chemical composition and quality of soil, as well as sludge, manures and other wastes applied to land. Our tests can detect contamination or contribute to site monitoring programmes.

Service overview

We provide a comprehensive suite of chemical analyses and tests to generate a full chemical profile and quality assessment of your soil, sludge, manure and other solid waste samples.

These tests reveal levels of carbon and nitrogen, dissolved elements, nutrients and contaminants including heavy metals. Our analyses inform a wide range of projects and monitoring programmes, including 167 UK forest plots as part of the European Soil Survey (BioSoil) programme.

Quality assured

The laboratory is a top performer in Europe for soil analysis, ranked 3rd out of 30 European laboratories in the bi-annual soil analysis proficiency scheme run by the EU’s EU Protection of Forests Against Atmospheric Pollution programme.

The laboratory also operates under the Joint Code of Practice for Research, giving you peace of mind that all our procedures and protocols meet the strict standards for science and research set by the UK Government.

Unlike many commercial analytical laboratories and testing centres, we always run calibrated controls with certified reference material to maintain the quality of our data and assess any significant drift or change in sensitivity. You can be sure that data from our facility will be suitable for detailed research analysis and long-term forest health, land remediation and environmental programmes.

Expertise

We have supported forestry-related research projects with soil analyses for a number of years. Through this active participation in research we have acquired significant expertise in developing sampling protocols and advising on site monitoring.

Our clients include research organisations and university research groups from across Europe as well as environmental consultants, forestry contractors and private woodland owners.

Standard tests

• Moisture, density, pH, conductivity
• Water-soluble anions (F, Cl, NO₂, NO₃, PO₄ and SO₄)
• Water-soluble ammonium (NH₄)
• Exchangeable cations (BaCl₂ extraction; Al, Ca, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na)
• Exchangeable acidity (BaCl₂ extraction)
• Aqua regia extractable elements (Al, As, B, Ba, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, K, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Ni, P, Pb, S, Sb, Se, Sn, Sr, Zn, Zr)
• Acid oxalate extractable ions (Al, Fe)
• Total nitrogen, carbon inorganic carbon and organic carbon
• Particle size distribution
• Ammonium nitrate extractable ions (Ca, K, Mg, Mn, Na, S and Adas Index for K and Mg)
• Phosphorus available (with ADAS index)
• Loss on ignition (LOI) organic matter/organic carbon

Our tests use state-of-the-art laboratory equipment and instrumentation, including our dual view optical emission spectrophotometer which offers low limits of detection and greater accuracy at trace levels. See our price list for more details.

Costs and Charges

Please consult our price list for standard test charges

We also offer a broad range of specialist tests. Please contact us to discuss your specific requirements so we can provide you with a fully itemised costing.