A collaboration between a Husker scientist and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has created a web-based application now available to facilitate digital soil mapping and optimize soil sampling.
The Soil Sample Planning Organizer Tool, or SSPOT, “was designed as a user-friendly tool to help both producers and researchers make informed sampling decisions,” said Trenton Franz, a University of Nebraska–Lincoln professor of hydrogeophysics and associate director of research for the School of Natural Resources.
The tool can be accessed at https://sspot.scinet.usda.gov.
“Every project aiming to understand soil variability across a field faces the same questions: How many samples should I take, and where should I collect them?” said Franz, who developed the initial algorithm and provided the scientific backing behind SSPOT. “While these questions seem straightforward, the answers vary greatly depending on location and project goals.”
