SOCR 400 - Soils and Global Change: Science and Impacts

The Earth system is undergoing continuous changes, which have profound impacts on soil and soil processes, as well as on the capacity of soil to support demand for food, fiber, and e energy. Soils and climate change are tightly linked in a series of feedback mechanisms for which understanding is critical to sustainably managing world soils. Regenerative soil management can thus become one of the solutions to climate change and sustainable food production.

Upon the completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Describe the main components and drivers of soil biogeochemistry
• Describe current and projected global changes, their effects on soil, and potential feedback.
• Understand and discuss the state-of-the art methods available for the study of soil biogeochemistry and the effects of climate and land use change on soils.
• Use Excel to analyze data from a basic experiment and produce a data report.
• Discuss sustainable soil management options for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
• Develop and evaluate conceptual models.
• Read and synthetize scientific literature.
• Write a short scientific paper to articulate and substantiate proposed hypothesis.