Experiment at Red House
At a secret location on Red House Estate a small fenced off area of pasture is being used as an experimental site to look into ways of measuring the amount of carbon dioxide being given off by microbes in the soil. In this time of global warming much emphasis has been put on emissions by human activities but these need to be put into context by measuring the carbon dioxide given out by natural processes, and the activity of bacteria and fungi in the soil is a significant factor. The experiment, funded by the Stockholm Environment Institute and conducted from the University of York, is concentrating on specific methods of data collection. Dr Andreas Heinemeyer (left in the picture) says the results look promising despite some problems with rabbits chewing electrical cables and strong winds interfering with some of the readings.