US Department of Agriculture
In Briggs' first professional position he was put in charge of the Physics Laboratory (later the Bureau of Soils) of the US Department of Agriculture. He was one of a new breed of multi-disciplinary scientists studying the biology and ecology of plant life. His research work was concentrated on water retention of soils and he was a founder of the science of soil physics. In 1906 he devised a soil classification technique called the moisture equivalent based on centrifuging, which is now thought of as the first Pedotransfer function. In the same year he also organized a biophysical laboratory that later became the Bureau of Plant Industry. Briggs worked with Homer Leroy Shantz on the effect of environment on the water uptake by plants, and was an early contributor to ecology.
Read more about this topic: Lyman James Briggs
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