Matthias Leopold

I am a soil geomorphologist at the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment focusing on soils as geoarchives. Frequently used methods for my studies include soil and geomorphic mapping, shallow geophysics, various laboratory methods such as XRD, XRF and others. Integrating knowledge from pedology and geoscience to study and to understand near surface processes at various scales and environments, I can develop 2D and 3D subsurface models using geophysical methods, to characterise vertical and horizontal differences in the upper meters including soils. Portraying the complexity of the subsurface, recently known in science as the”critical zone”, allows statements about possible rooting depths, hydrological flowpaths, material composition, thickness variations of soil horizons and geomorphic layers – information highly wanted by agriculture, forestry and engineering. Adding numerical dating techniques such as OSL and radiocarbon towards stratigraphic sections, allows developing chronostratigraphic units in order to describe past landscape evolution – valuable knowledge for nowadays environmental development concepts.