South West England Soils Discussion Group

The South West England Soils Discussion Group was set up in 1975 to stimulate interest in the study of soils in the Region, and provide a means whereby individuals from different institutions and fields of activity can meet to discuss problems and topics of common interest.

Membership of the group is free. Meetings are organised on an ad hoc basis on selected themes relevant to the wider study of soils, land use and the environment in the South West. Recent meeting themes have included 'Soils and Microbial Contaminants', Soils and Environmental Quality' and Soil Physical Conditions and Environmental Impact'.

Please contact the Society Secretary, Dr Rob Parkinson, if you would like your name to be added to the email mailing list so that you can receive notification of future meetings.

2008 meeting

The next meeting of the SWESDG is likely to be at IGER North Wyke in November. Further details will be posted here when available.

Soil function, quality in indicators - useful concepts ?

Winter meeting, February 2006

Papers from this conference, held on  Friday 3 February 2006 at the University of Plymouth can be downloaded here. Note these are compressed versions of the original presentations, with most photos removed to speed the download process !

Plants control soil quality and function, not bugs
David Scholefield, IGER North Wyke

Soil Quality Indicators – developing a soil indicator set for Environmental interactions
Graham Merrington, Environment Agency

Soils – Foundation of the Rural Economy ? - overview of the RELU programme
Rachel Creamer, NSRI, Cranfield University

NSRI Defra research on key indicators for soil functions
Bob Palmer and Dick Thomson, NSRI, Cranfield University

Scoping study into the functional capability of soils using the Agricultural Land Classification
John King, ADAS Cambridge