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ARS Home » Midwest Area » St. Paul, Minnesota » Soil and Water Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #416123
Research Project: Developing and Evaluating Strategies to Protect and Conserve Water and Environmental Resources While Maintaining Productivity in Agronomic Systems

Location: Soil and Water Management Research

Title: USDA LTAR Common Experiment measurement: Total suspended solids (TSS)

Author
item Dalzell, Brent
item Pisani, Oliva

Submitted to: Protocols.io
Publication Type: Research Notes
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/14/2024
Publication Date: 8/14/2024
Citation: Dalzell, B.J., Pisani, O. 2024. USDA LTAR Common Experiment measurement: Total suspended solids (TSS). Protocols.io. https://doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.261ge5pjog47/v2.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.261ge5pjog47/v2

Interpretive Summary: This protocol is part of a set of published articles at protocols.io for the LTAR Common Experiment. This protocol outlines how to measure Total Suspended Solids (TSS). This measurement is important to agriculture because suspended solids resulting from agricultural land use can impair water quality. The goal is to provide repeatable guidelines to achieve consistent data collection, instrument maintenance, data processing, and quality control for obtaining these data at cropland sites across the U.S.

Technical Abstract: Total suspended solids (TSS) refers to all the material from a well-mixed sample retained by a filter media. In the case of environmental water samples, TSS is commonly used to measure sediment in surface waters (field runoff, ditches, and streams) but can also be present in subsurface flow where macropore flow or surface inlets to tile drainage systems are present. In some cases, TSS can also include algae or other plant materials that comprise volatile suspended solids (VSS) because combustion in a muffle furnace eliminates them. The recommended method for measuring TSS includes passing a known sample volume through a pre-weighed filter and measuring the oven-dry weight of the material trapped on the filter.