SW Scotland: (pm Friday August 5th to Monday August 8th, 2022. 3 full days, 8 locations, 11 soil profiles).

This excursion will feature the rocks, quaternary glaciation, Holocene deposition and Anthropocene changes and their impact on the soils in the southern uplands of Scotland and on the Irish Sea coast - a microcosm from the mountains to the sea. The theme is sustainability of agriculture and soils in the region; and the tension between agriculture and bio- and geodiversity. The current land use and agricultural products and practices and anthropic land use evolution will be highlighted and discussed. The tour will visit the SRUC Crichton Royal farm where we will compare soil compaction and underlying soil structure under different soil types and management practices before moving on to the Cairnsmore of Fleet National Nature Reserve, the diverse agricultural landscape of the Machars of Wigtownshire and taking in world-class drumlin fields and world-famous golf links. We will view a wide range of soil profiles in total) developed on various soil parent materials from estuarine silts and clays, raised beach gravels, blown sands and glacial deposits.