Linda Karssies - CSIRO. CSIRO Australian National Soils Archive. 2 Nov 2016, Canberra. International Geo-Sample Symposium (IGSN)

1. Linda Karssies|
2 November 2016
CSIRO LAND AND WATER
The Australian National Soil Archive

2. 2 |
Archived soil specimens are invaluable
“time capsules” for assessing change in soil
properties over time, particularly as new
analytical tools become available.
They also allow Australia-wide studies without
the need for travel.

3. 3 |
Archiving soil samples so they can be found
from stored (inaccessible) to archived (accessible )

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Our two main goals are:
• To conserve the long term scientific value of
soil specimens and soil data
• To make available the soil specimens and their
data available for public research, both now
and in the future

5. 5 |
At the National Soil Archive
We archive soil data &
soil material,
manage submissions &
user requests

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• The standard for collection field information and soil profiles is laid
down in the ‘Yellow Book’.
• Standard laboratory methods are described in the Green Book.
We have set a minimum data requirements for archived samples:
1. Detailed location information is essential (GPS info these
days), maps in the past),
2. some measured properties,
3. and the methods that were used this analysis.
New results (from users) are added to the database
Practical archive information is stored: in which drawer can the
samples be found and how much material do we hold

7. 7 |
Archiving soil dataArchiving soil data

8. 8 |
Every soil sample is assigned a unique barcode
which is a concatenation of the six highlighted variables
in this case 899B-MA32114

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Our ‘product:
Soil material plus information’
775 gram Whole Soil
Agency: CSIRO Division of Soils (NSW)
Project: CAN
Site: CP159
Layer: 1
Soil depth: 0.15-0.30 m
Spec_ID: 29989
Compactus address: 18A04
Subsampled: 09/2013

10. Linkages
10 |
Samples are organised by
Site, and Sites are grouped
by Project. In the Project
table information about
publications may be found -
if it was made available at
the time
Archive samples all lab
results and lab method
information
Entity Relation Diagram
in Microsoft Access

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• An extensive database called NatSoil of 90,000 soil samples from 12,000 sites
• Samples sites locations and site reports can be downloaded online form
Australian Soil Resource Information System (ASRIS)
How people find out about our samples

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Locations and reports also in the Ipad app ”Soilmapp”

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Managing user requestsUser and submission requests forms are available on our website

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How are the soil samples re-used?
• For the calibration of new instruments
• For national soil diffuse reflectance libraries,
to characterise soil composition and diversity
• For overview studies on 1) carbon sequestering potential
2) toxicity of Boron
3) sodic soils
• For development - an early version of ASRIS was based on NatSoil
• For measuring changes in soil properties over time
• For a study by Australian Federal Police - forensics

15. 15 |
How we could soil archive users benefit from an IGSN?
When users of the soil samples currently refer to samples
from our collection in their journal articles, they currently
mention the Site_ID and soil depth, as part of the National
Australian Soil Archive collection. When others after them see
that study and want to use those same soil samples, they
contact us and list the Site_ID’s and soil depth and we look in
our database if more soil material is available for them.
With an International Geo Sample Number, users would more
easily be able to find out what work has been carried out on
the samples of their interest. Into the future, as the number of
samples that has been used several times grows, this could
be valuable.
This benefit would likely take many years to come to fruition.

16. Thank you
Linda Karssies, Archivist
t +61 2 6246 5824
e linda.karssies@csiro.au
www.clw.csiro.au/aclep/archive
CSIRO LAND AND WATER