Laércio Santos Silva

Soil Scientist and professor at the Federal University of Grande Dourados (UFGD), located in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Holds a degree in Agronomic Engineering from the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE), a Master's and Ph.D. in Agronomy from São Paulo State University (Unesp/Jaboticabal), with part of the doctoral studies carried out at the University of Córdoba (UCO), Spain. He also completed postdoctoral research at Unesp/Jaboticabal and at the Federal University of Rondonópolis, Mato Grosso. He teaches the course Soil Genesis, Morphology, and Classification in the undergraduate programs of Agronomy, Animal Science, and Aquaculture at UFGD. He is a permanent faculty member of the Graduate Program in Agronomy (PPGAGRO/UFGD), where he teaches the course Soil Mineralogy and Its Influence on Plant Production. His research focuses on the interaction between pedological attributes and soil management, with an emphasis on soil mineralogy. His main research lines include: i) Pedology and land use; ii) Dynamics of organic matter and carbon sequestration in agricultural systems; iii) Precision agriculture, applying pedometrics to define management strategies. Currently, he investigates the accelerated weathering of rock dust remineralizers, focusing on the use of mica-schist in sandy soils under Integrated Crop-Livestock Systems (ICLS) in the Cerrado region of Mato Grosso. He has technical expertise in advanced soil analysis techniques, including X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRS), Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy (MIR), and Magnetometry (soil magnetic susceptibility). (Source: Lattes Curriculum)