NRRC laboratories:

The refurbished and expanded laboratories of the institute include the following:

-   Soil sciences laboratory

• Fracture laboratory
• Sample preparation laboratory
• General soil sciences laboratory
• Element analytical laboratory (soil, plant and water analytics)

- Soil biology laboratory:

• Inoculation chamber, soil and microbiology laboratory

-   Meteorology laboratory

-   Geophysics laboratory

R&D&I activities:

Key research areas are, as follows:

soil, water and plant sample examination, site investigation, mycorrhiza research in forest soils, edaphon examination, meteorology measurements, test measurements for evaluating the efficiency of new methods.

Education:

In education, the institute’s laboratories are used for lab sessions, student science projects, individual lab projects, thesis projects, PhD research. Key areas of education include: lab sessions in soil sciences, soil protection, mineral and rock science, soil biology, meteorology, climatology, microbiology and instrumented analytics

Key laboratory equipment:

Plasma emission spectrophotometer with inductive coupling (ICP-OES), atom adsorption spectrophotometer (with graphite furnace), CNS analyser, N analyser, equipment for soil and plant sample preparation.

Research and stereo microscope with camera system, for soil biota and mycorrhiza studies; autoclave, microbiology chamber and microbiology incubator.

Equipment for surface temperature (plants, soil, building, etc.) measurements, Carbon-dioxide and vapour flux measurement tool.

Georadar – soil investigation up to 1-2 m in depth; VLF instrument – investigation between 20-100 m in depth; Overhauser magnetometer – magnetic research; Multi-electrode geoelectric instruments – electric research in the top 60 m;