The objective of this 6-day tour is to highlight just some of the diversity in Great Britain’s mainland, whilst focussing on the ability of the local soils to sustain a variety of soil functions beneficial to society. Leaving from London, and weaving across the country before ending in Glasgow, this tour will visit 12 sites and view 19 soil exposures or sections, including varying forms of: Luvisols, Arenosols, Histosols, Stagnosols, Planosols, Cambisols, Phaeozems, Podzols, and Umbrisols.Themes to be discussed at the sites include:
- The ‘classic’; long term experiments at Rothamsted Research and their implications for resilience of the local soils
- Fen peatlands in an area with regional drainage schemes: an unsustainable soil resource?
- Managing local agricultural soils to minimise soil structural problems and reduce the impact of agrochemical losses and rapid rainfall-runoff responses on local surface waters
- The impact on soil and atmospheric emissions from enhanced CO2 levels in mature deciduous woodlands: A 10 year experimental monitoring project, unique in the northern hemisphere
- Managing local soils to support a Community-owned organic farm
- Management and conservation issues in the Tinto Hills, one of the best areas of active stone stripes in Scotland.
