Content (Syllabus outline)
The course starts with explaining the soils as part of forest stand. Parent material is for Slovenian conditions a factor which strongly modifies the soils; selected topics of geology are included to facilitate the students the ability of recognizing the most spread rocks, relief forms, formation of weathering materials and their transport and short presentation of geologic time scale to inform the students about most elementary use of Geological maps. Soil forming factors are following as climate, relief and biological factors. The already mentioned weathering processes are than merged with other processes as transformations of organic matter, development of soil structure, causes of soil colours, horizon arrangement, migration processes, gleying and pseudogleying processes and others. Human influences are shortly presented as well due to human induced transformation of forest to agricultural land and the past providing their fertility with the nourishment uptake from forests. Additionally the morphology of soil profile is explained including the human induced changes as for exp. litter colleting. Soil composition and soil properties as texture, structure and porosity are discussed as well. Soil water is explained from the physical and chemical point of view. The student gets the knowledge of different soil types and their geographical distribution in Slovenia and their way of formation. Basic soil names used in the documents of EU are presented as well.
Prerequisites
1. Condition for inclusion in the work:
- Inscription to adequate academic year
2. Condition for performing study obligations:
- Oral colloquium: rock determination
- Written colloquium: laboratory analytical procedures and soil classification
- Project report
- Practical field work &report