Coring was done with a hand held half-cylinder auger (8cm diameter) to insure cores with little vertical compression, thus the root and soil profiles would be intact. Cores were taken from 6 small primary creeks within four major creek areas:

Two primary creeks within Sweeney Creek, right and left branch (5 years fertilized - since 2004)
Two primary creeks within West Creek, right and left branch (used as reference since 2004)
One primary creek within Clubhead Creek, right branch (one year fertilized - 2009)
One primary creek within Nelson Creek, left branch (reference)
 
In each primary creek, 6 sites in creek bank tall-form S. alterniflora were chosen along the length of the creek, 3 on each bank. Each site was co-located with a cross-sectional transect so that the elevation of the S. alterniflora can be determined (site # refers to white PVC transect pole #) .Latitude and longitude were noted. At each site, we took 2 cores using the auger: 1 for root and shoot biomass centered on a single plant and 1 for geotechnical properties taken in an adjacent area.

For the geotechnical cores, the belowground material was sampled using volumetric syringes at the following depth intervals: 0-2cm, 5-7cm, 10-12cm, 15-17cm, 20-22cm, 30-32cm, 40-42cm, 50-52cm. This material was brought back to the lab for determination of bulk density (dry weight/volume) and bulk organic content (determined from loss on ignition, 550°C for 14hrs).