Finger printing dust

Farm and Ranch August 29, 2011 We all know individuals can be identified through finger prints. Well you can identify dust in a similar fashion. USDA Agricultural Research Service scientist Ann Kennedy at Pullman, Washington, says soil microbe communities each have a unique finger print, thanks to its lipid content.

Kennedy: “In a CSI sort of way we can look at the finger print of soil that might be in a car tire, or on a shoe or even on a cuff of a pants leg and compare that to certain locations and finger prints from certain locations, and know if that car was in that area or a person has walked in that area.”

This dust finger printing can also prove the innocence of agriculture falsely accused.

Kennedy: “One of the things we have done, we can definitely separate out road type of soil, or dirt roads or gravel road soil, versus that from agricultural fields. A lot of times the agricultural community has been blamed for some dust event or poor visibility and we have been able to prove that it was the road soil not the ag soil that was causing the dust in the air.”

Kennedy also uses these finger prints to see if there are changes in the soil under different agricultural practices.

Kennedy: “And so we can then identify those management practices that are best for the soil in a given area.”

ARS scientist Ann Kennedy at Pullman.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net.