Soils are usually only few decimetres thick. Here, the atmosphere, lithosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere and anthroposphere interlink. Soils are constantly developing and changing and can be very heterogeneous and complex on small scales. The pedosphere is  of enormous importance for water, carbon and nutrient cycles - without soils, no plant nutrition is possible, soils are truly the ground for all life and survival of humankind.

The Working Area of Soil Science embedded in the group of Hydrogeology and Landscape Hydrology, studies the complex skin of the earth. In addition to soil classification and soil protection, our topics are on soil process research in the north-west of Germany. This includes the sensitive and unique regions such as beaches, wadden areas and marshes as well as moors and the Geest landscapes. In Lower Saxony this is where the hotspots of carbon storage and the largest physical dynamics are.

A special focus of our working area is the analysis of dissolved and particulate organic matter (DOM & POM), these being the most mobile phases in the transition zone between soils and (surface) waters.

Curious? Here you can find current thesis projects