Interdisciplinary Team Studies Decomposition Effects on Soil

“Forensic researchers at UT Knoxville’s famous Anthropological Research Facility, popularly known as the ‘Body Farm,’ have made headlines for decades in their discoveries of what happens to human bodies after death. Now, a multidisciplinary team—engineers, soil scientists, and biologists—digs in with them for a deeper look at what happens to the soil underneath a decomposing body.

Their study, Soil Elemental Changes During Human Decomposition, published in June 2023 by PLOS One, could benefit investigators searching for human remains in remote or hard-to access-vegetated areas.”

Read more of the article by Randall Brown, rbrown73@utk.edu