FWO sabbatical bench fee professor Finke

The focus of my sabbatical leave is to increase the process coverage of my soil development model SoilGen by implementing functionality that (i)
was designed by my PhD-students and myself and (ii) has been developed by researchers at the SLU in Sweden. This will increase the application
domain of SoilGen so that both physical and chemical protection of soil organic matter (SOM) is simulated by the model. Hereto, in addition to
the weathering of minerals, also new-formation of several clay minerals and pedogenic oxides will be implemented, as well as a mechanism to
quantify their effect on decay rates of SOM-pools (chemical protection). Furthermore, effects of SOM, bioturbation and tillage on the distribution
of (micro-)porosity and associated physical protection will be added to the model. New functionality will be designed and, where feasible,
implemented, to include soil production from bedrock to the model. This will involve an adaptation to calculate the hydrology of gravelly soils.
The model will then be applicable to more soil types. The resulting updated SoilGen-model, with public domain code and documentation, will be
my legacy to the scientific community a few years before my retirement