The Soils Group comprises a wide range of scientific disciplines, reflecting the complexity and cross cutting nature of modern soil research.

The areas covered include soil microbiology and biology, soil science, molecular biology, mineralogy and plant physiology.

We also work closely with the other groups in the Institute, for example Catchment Management , where research on the physical aspects of soils is conducted.

Our aim is to increase our detailed understanding of key soil processes, but also to make this relevant to the continued functioning of Scottish soils. Among our key assets and areas of work are:

• The Scottish soils database which provides a comprehensive picture of our soil resources, and is testament to the commitment of both funders and staff over a prolonged period. We aim to continually enhance and update this important asset.
• Soil microbiology and molecular ecology. We have developed, and are continuing to develop, new techniques to characterise the soil microbial community and their functioning in different soils. We are also developing and applying soil DNA fingerprinting techniques and plan to create a soil DNA database.
• The development of models at different scales for example, process based models within the ORCHESTRA framework and landscape scale models of carbon and nitrogen cycling in highly organic soils.
• The range of chemical, physical and biological techniques, backed up by appropriate expertise, at our disposal.
• The use of state-of the art stable istoping tracing methods to determine the flow of carbon in our ecosystems, and which also contributes to our overall understanding of terrestrial carbon.
• Our expertise in soil mineralogy in particular in X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. We have successfully developed spray-drying techniques for preparing samples prior to XRD analysis and this is now widely used in this area of research.

Further information

The Soil science area has a number of research projects and a Peatland Microbiology interest group.

Soils Group staff list