In the geochemical laboratory, individual chemical parameters of the soil samples are investigated. Element determination is done using ICP-OES. Among other things, there are determined:
1) the pH values with the glass electrode,
2) the lime content with the Scheibler apparatus,
3) the conductivity of the soil,
4) the cation exchange capacity (abbreviation: KAK, T-value), and
5) the mass of the organic fraction of a sample by measuring the ignition loss in the muffle furnace.

Soil samples collected in the study area are placed in a plastic bag on site, sealed and labelled with a unique sample label. After sample storage, some pre-treatments have to be carried out before the physico-chemical investigation. Pre-treatment includes sample splitting, drying, sieving (< 2 mm for fine soil, see Soil Laboratory - Particle Size Analysis) and digestion. The sample is divided by a riffle divider or by quartering to the desired quantity. The samples are either dried in air …