David O. Carter & Mark Tibbett 
Soil Analysis in Forensic Taphonomy [PDF ebook] 
Chemical and Biological Effects of Buried Human Remains

A burial environment is a complex and dynamic system. It plays host to an abundance of interdependent chemical, physical, and biological processes, which are greatly influenced by the inclusion of a body and its subsequent decay. However, while taphonomy continues to emerge as a valuable forensic tool, until now most of the attention has been on th