Editor and contributors

Charlotte Decock served as the editor and main author of this lab manual. She is an assistant professor of soil health and fertility at Cal Poly. Her teaching and research focus on sustainable plant nutrition and soil conservation management. Her work at Cal Poly aims to contribute to the development and assessment of soil and nutrient management practices that protect soil, water and air resources, while maintaining agronomic productivity and economic viability in California’s cropping systems. She is also interested in the evaluation of novel indicators for the assessments of soil health and nutrient availability in arable soil. She earned a Ph.D. in Soils and Biogeochemistry from UC Davis and a M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Environment Engineering from Ghent University (Belgium). During the last 10 years, her research has focused on nutrient cycles and greenhouse gas emissions in agroecosystems around the world; and how they are affected by management practices and climate change.

This lab manual would not have been possible without the valuable contributions and input from current and former faculty and staff in the Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences Department at Cal Poly. Lab activities and resources from various faculty and staff were pulled together to develop this resource. We want to extend a special thank you to the following contributors:

• Craig Stubler
• Johnny Rosecrans
• Liz Will
• Chip Appel
• Cristina Lazcano
• Ron Taskey
• Rebecca Graham