AGRO 985: Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics

Instructor(s): Michael Kaiser

Number of Credit Hours: 3

Cross-listings: NRES 985, SOIL 985

Prerequisites: Basic knowledge about soil biogeochemical characteristics and processes are required to take full advantage of the content delivered. Recommended courses: AGRO/SOIL 153 or AGRO 804, AGRO/SOIL 455/855, GEOL 417/817.

Description: The course is designed to improve the understanding of carbon and nitrogen cycling in soil ecosystem including feedbacks and implications for soil management, environment, and climate.

Learning Outcomes/Course Objectives

1. Sources of inputs for organic carbon and nitrogen and their transformations within the soil ecosystem.
2. Importance of climatic and soil environmental conditions for soil carbon and nitrogen pools and their fluxes.
3. Different concepts and theories of stabilization and destabilization of organic matter in soil.
4. Methods used to analyze amount, composition, and turnover of carbon and nitrogen as formative elements of organic matter.
5. Relationships between soil organic carbon and nitrogen dynamics and soil management/land use and how anthropogenic activities cause losses of carbon and nitrogen from soil.
6. The functions of soil organic matter and its effect of productivity relevant soil characteristics.