2.1 Bulk Density and Linear Extensibility

The activity in soil quality, soil sufficiency, and sequestration of carbon has increased interest in bulk density, particularly of surface layers. This chapter focuses on four methods for measuring bulk density, namely core, clod, excavation, and radiation. As mass measurements are generally accepted to have low variability, the volume measurements contribute most to variability of bulk density. For several applications, it is necessary to know the volume of rock fragments at or near field capacity as well as the bulk density. These quantities include available water capacity, linear extensibility, and any expression of weight percentage data on an area basis. Linear extensibility may be computed in units of…