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Soil, also commonly referred to as earth, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life of plants and soil organisms. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from soil by restricting the former term specifically to displaced soil. Soil consists of a solid phase of minerals and organic matter (the soil matrix), as well as a porous phase that holds gases (the soil atmosphere) and water (the soil solution). Accordingly, soil is a three-state system of solids, liquids, and gases.
Soil science is the study of soil as a natural resource on the surface of the Earth including soil formation, classification and mapping; physical, chemical, biological, and fertility properties of soils; and these properties in relation to the use and management of soils. Sometimes terms which refer to branches of soil science, such as pedology (formation, chemistry, morphology, and classification of soil) and edaphology (how soils interact with living things, especially plants), are used as if synonymous with soil science.
Soil chemistry is the study of the chemical characteristics of soil. Soil chemistry is affected by mineral composition, organic matter and environmental factors. In the early 1870s a consulting chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society in England, named J. Thomas Way, performed many experiments on how soils exchange ions, and is considered the father of soil chemistry. Other scientists who contributed to this branch of ecology include Edmund Ruffin, and Linus Pauling.
"Hydrology for Engineers" is an introduction to the study of floods, droughts and a fair distribution of water. The course will introduce basic hydrologic concepts and methods: probability and statist
Il est question d'aborder la domestication des Alpes par l'entremise de l'étude des modalités de construction de l'environnement bâti. Une étude entre architecture, génie civil, anthropologie et scien
Ecohydrology investigates the effects of hydrological processes on ecosystems, as well as in turn the effects of biotic processes on the water cycle. The Summer School will focus on three aspects of e
Allometric scaling relations are widely used to link biological processes in nature. They are typically expressed as power laws, postulating that the metabolic rate of an organism scales as its mass to the power of an allometric exponent, which ranges betw ...
Rainfall characteristics such as intensity, duration, and frequency are key determinants of the hydro-geomorphological response of a catchment. The presence of non-linear and threshold effects makes the relationship between rainfall variability and geomorp ...