This session is focused both on present-day and past soils in temperate mountain regions. Soils in mid-latitude regions play a decisive role on the environmental dynamics of the terrestrial ecosystem. A wide range of soil processes occur in mountain temperate regions, taking into account that most of world’s population live at the foot of these mountains. The impact of human activity in some areas has been substantial and has affected the natural dynamics of soil processes by increasing soil erosion and remotion, changes of the land use, agriculture activities, fires, etc. In other mountains, the recent warming has impacted the thermal state of the ground, which may have major implications for slope stability.

The study of paleosols and recent dynamics are a source of information to identify different aspects of landscape dynamics at different time scales. A wide range of geomorphic processes (glacial, fluvial, karst, debris flows, rock avalanches), volcanic activity, aeolian deposition, human impact, etc. has been inferred based on the study of paleosols and recent soils in sedimentary sequences from mountainous environments. Over the last years the geochronology of the past record has been improved, contributing to the reconstruction of landscape evolution and better understanding of recent environmental dynamics in mountain regions.

The aim of the session “Soils in mountain regions” is to bring to light the state of progress in knowledge in the study of present-day and past soil processes in these areas. Researchers involved in these topics are kindly invited to submit an abstract for this session.