Crop Systems Engineering Seminar: "Soils: A true frontier of Science" Event

Modern civilisation depends on a thin layer of soil covering Earth's surface. We are thinning this critical layer at a rate slow enough to prevent immediate anxiety in society but fast enough to threaten long term survival. In this talk I demonstrate how we continue to get soil management wrong and still lack a fundamental understanding of soils. I will argue that novel mathematical approaches are required to deal with the complexity of soils, and will explore the use of exciting technologies including X-ray CT, 3D printing and use ‘invisible soils' to make soil clear as mud in an attempt to link the processes at scales of microorganisms to emergent behaviours of ecosystems.