The universal bioavailability environment/soil test unibest

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Abstract
The Universal Bioavailability Environment/Soil Test (UNIBEST) provides a new methodology for testing and monitoring soil, the vadose zone, water‐saturated strata, free water, or other media. The methodology is based on placement of a uniform, rigid, spherical, porous capsule of mixed‐bed ion‐exchange resin into the medium to be tested. Solutes, both cations and anions, are independently and selectively adsorbed, based on their concentration in the solution phase and their rate of diffusion to the resin sink. The exchange capacity of the resin capsule functions as an effectively infinite sink, allowing continuous adsorption of elements in a manner somewhat analogous to absorption by living organisms. Thus, quantities of elements accumulated in the capsule during a selected time relate to their “bioavailability.”; The test is being developed as a “universal”; single‐extraction approach for laboratory soil testing. However, capsule characteristics allow for in‐situ methodology development to replace vacuum extraction of solution, repetitive soil sampling, or sampling of water or other liquids. Objectives of this paper are to review the resin methodology and system characteristics, discuss advantages for both laboratory and in‐situ environment and soil testing and monitoring, and provide examples of results. Laboratory and field results provide evidence that the capsules can be used to monitor movement of solutes under conditions of both saturated and unsaturated water flow, and that results are similar to those obtained by vacuum extraction of soil solution.

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