Time：June 24, 2020

Venue: Zoom ID 62960407591

Reporter: Prof. Budiman Minasny

Budiman Minasny is a Professor in soil-landscape modelling at the University of Sydney. His research and contribution to the discipline of soil science has been on discovering the causes and controls of soil distribution over space and time. He created novel methodologies that try to explain the dynamic of soil in the landscape. These include mechanistic models that quantify soil formation processes, and empirical models based on modern mathematical and statistical techniques that unearth pattern from data and explain the complexity of soil variation in space and time.

Modelling soil processes coupled with functional prediction of soil properties can unravel the intricacy of soil. The mapping techniques he developed are being used to in the GlobalSoilMap project, which will supply the global demand for soil data for food security assessment. He devised mechanistic models to study and gain knowledge on the formation of soil in the landscape over millennial time scales. This model improves the theoretical understanding of soil genesis and soil functional properties and how they interact with other components of the ecosystem. He also established empirical models to predict soil hydraulic properties for Australian soils.