The Laboratory of soil, plant and water analyses along with the support that provides to the research projects, studies or relevant works, is also responsible for serving the farmers and anyone else interested by analyzing soil, plant, water and waste samples as well as other materials like artificial substrates, soil amendments such as zeolites by the internationally acceptable methods. The analyses performed are the following:
Soils
Characterization analyses:
- Texture
- pH,
- Electrical conductivity
- Salinity
- Free calcium carbonates
- Organic matter content
- Total nitrogen content (Ν)
- Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC)
- Exhangeable cations (potassium-K, sodium-Na, calcium-Ca, magnesium-Mg)
- Base saturation
- Alkalinity
Determination of mineral composition (when necessary) is carried out in cooperation with other university laboratories.
Nutrient content:
- Available phosphorus (Ρ)
- Nitrate nitrogen (ΝΟ3-Ν)
- Ammonium nitrogen (ΝΗ4-Ν)
- Exchangeable basic cations (Κ, Νa, Ca, Mg)
- Exchangeable aluminium (Al)
- Available and total concentrations of metallic nutrients (iron-Fe, zinc-Zn, manganese-Mn, copper-Cu)
- Available boron (B)
Toxic elements content:
Available and total concentrations of heavy metals:
cadmium-Cd, lead-Pb, nickel-Ni, chromium-Cr
Plants
Total concentrations of nutrients in leaves
- Macronutrients (Ν, Ρ, Κ, Ca, Mg)
- Micronutrients (B, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu)
- Toxic elements (Cd, Pb, Ni)
Waters
- pH
- electrical conductivity
- salinity
- alkalinity
- hardness
- total dissolved solids
- cations Κ+, Νa+, Ca2+, Mg2+
- anions CO32-, HCO3-, SO42-, Cl-, NO3-
Wastes
Liquids
- all the determinations of waters
- biological oxygen demand (BOD)
- chemical oxygen demand (COD)
Solids
all the soil analyses
Equipments
- Atomic absorption spectrometry (Varian A400 Plus with automatic sampler and diluter). Determinations: Fe, Cu, Zn, Mn, Pb, Cd, Ni, Mo, Mg, Al, Ca, Si and Sr is soil extracts and water samples.
- Air chromatography (Agillent with mass spectrometer and tracers detectors FID and NPD and Purge-and-Trap system for volatile substances. Determinations: Qualitative and quantitative detection of most of the organic substances in soil and deposits extracts and water samples.
- Ion chromatography (Metrhom with anions and cations detector and automatic sampler. Determinations: Simultaneous measurement of anions (Cl-, NO2-, NO3-, F-, Br-, SO42-), and cations (K+, NH4+, Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+) in water samples.
- Elemental analyzer C, N, S (LECO CNS 2000 with automatic sampler). Determinations: Simultaneous measurement of the total content of these three elements in soil and plant tissue samples.
- Continuous flow cell spectrophotometer (Varian Cary 1E). Determinations: Ρ, Β, ΝΟ3 in water samples and soil extracts.
- Continuous flow analyzer (FIAStar 5000 Analyzer). Determinations: ΝΟ2-, ΝΟ3- and ΝΗ4+ and PO43- in soil extracts.
- Evaporator (RotaVapor BUCHI R-215) for soil extracts.
- pH-meters .
- Electrical conductivity meters.
- Calcimeters.
- Muffle furnace of soil and plant tissue samples.
- Grinding mills of soil and plant tissue samples.
- Furnace driers.
- Water baths.
- Ultrasonic.
Methods of analyses accreditation
Recently the laboratory was accredited by the Hellenic Accreditation System (E.S.Y.D.) under the terms of ELOT EN ISO/IEC 17025:2005 Standard and ESYD criteria to carry out tests of atrazine and 1,2 dibromoethane in soils (Accreditation Certificate No 487).