Preparing media for culturing bacteria and fungi. Plating soil dilutions. Homogenizer for soil samples. Plating potato stem sections. Techniques and Facilities Earthworm Collecting Earthworms may be collected from the soil by hand-sorting which is very tedious but if properly done may provide the most precise results.
Worms surface within minutes and can be collected for analysis using large forceps or tweezers.
Tullgren Funnel Extractions of Microfauna Most soil animals are adapted to dark, cool and moist conditions that occur in the soil. These adaptions can be exploited as mechanisms to remove these animals from the soil by slowly creating dry, bright and hot conditions over a period of 3 or 4 days in a soil sample to drive ambulatory animals from the soil. Counting Microfauna Using Microscopes Extracted animals are usually so small they have to be viewed by means of a dissecting microscope. Identifications may often need confirmation at higher magnifications offered by compound microscopes. Microfaunal determinations are also facilitated by using shallow, gridded counting dishes, a bright lighting system and a series of taxonomic references.