FACTS

Related terms

Accumulated Degree Days (ADD)

The sum of daily mean temperatures above a threshold (usually 0 °C) over a period of interest. Used as a measure of...

AFTER

Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research, University of Technology Sydney (2016). First body farm outside the United States; subtropical eastern Australian decomposition...

Anthropology Research Facility (ARF)

The first outdoor human decomposition research facility, established by William M. Bass at the University of Tennessee Knoxville in 1981. The foundational...

Cadaver Decomposition Island (CDI)

The localised area of soil and vegetation altered by the decomposition fluids and gases released from a body. A CDI has a...

Human Tissue Act 2004 (HTA)

UK legislation governing the use of human tissue for scheduled purposes including research. Any outdoor human decomposition research facility in the United...

Necrobiome

The microbial community associated with a decomposing body, encompassing the thanatomicrobiome (internal community at the time of death) and the successive soil...

Scavenger Succession

The sequence in which vertebrate carrion feeders (dogs, coyotes, vultures, raccoons, rodents, feral pigs) interact with decomposing remains. Documented systematically by Haglund...

STAFS

Southeast Texas Applied Forensic Science Facility, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville Texas (2009). The second major US body farm; subtropical humid Gulf...

Willed-Body Donation

The voluntary, pre-mortem consent by an individual to donate their remains to a specific research programme after death. Distinguished from anatomical donation...

Explained in

• The Body Farm Research Stack: ARF Tennessee, STAFS Texas, AFTER Australia and BeyondForensic Anthropology Center at Texas State, San Marcos Texas. Semi-arid Hill Country climate, providing a third distinct US regional ADD calibration baseline...