PhD-course 'Soil systems: Integrating the chemical & biophysical interface in soils'

Soils are one of the most complex systems on earth in terms of their physical structure, chemical constitution and biodiversity. Until recently, soil science has been mainly operated on the basis of rather separate disciplines of physics, chemistry and biology. However, there is now an increasing awareness of the need to integrate these disciplines into a soil system view, i.e. looking at biogeochemical and biophysical interactions in soils. More specifically, soils are seen as complex adaptive system where macroscopic properties depend on interactions at smaller spatial scales. Recent technological advances are now available to discover those interactions in the natural soil habitat, i.e. at nano- and micro-scales. Exploring this minute universe and the interactions therein may have profound implications for our understanding of soil functions at field, catchment and regional scales. Aims: The aims of this course are to: * provide an introduction to soil system sciences, * give an overview of emerging micro-analytical techniques and their application to environmental samples, * present examples of soil system sciences to study ecosystem services and * to discuss challenges and the future of this research discipline.