Fig 1.
The low-cost high-resolution imaging device for hyphae in soil assembled following the protocol.
(A) Labeled photo of the assembled imaging device. The design was adopted from the 3D printer i3 MK3S+ (Prusa Research, Prague, Czech Republic), with a digital microscope camera (DMC) replacing the filament extruder. (B) Close-up of the DMC carriage which has a focusing mechanism that moves the DMC perpendicular to the soil profile by rotating a threaded attachment (in white). (C) Photo of the imaging device inside the observation box.
Fig 2.
Automated soil imaging process initiated by the user following the protocol.
(A) Diagram depicting the DMC movement (green arrows) during soil imaging: images are captured at all XZ positions before focusing deeper into the soil profile. (B) Soil profile images yielded at three different focus depths (white font) at an imaging resolution of 0.65 μm px-1 (39200 dpi). Red circles indicate hyphae in focus. Images were cropped, and originals are included in the S1 Dataset.
Fig 3.
High-resolution soil profile image yielded following the protocol.
Imaging was performed at 0.65 μm px-1 (39200 dpi) in a Quercus serrata grove in May 2023 and aligned with the Grid/Collection stitching plugin of Fiji [46]. Original images are available from the data repository Zenodo (see the Materials & methods section).