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Please note that this session was withdrawn and is no longer available in the respective programme. This withdrawal might have been the result of a merge with another session.

SSS4.6

Soil biota in land use systems – Assessing the importance of functions and services provided by soil organisms in sustainable soil management (co-organized)
Convener: Martin Potthoff  | Co-Conveners: Johann Zaller , Stefan Schrader , Guénola Pérès 

Current and future land use strategies face the problem that they have to increase their productivity in order to fulfil the needs of a growing human population without running into the risk of compromising ecosystems’ basic functions and self-preservation. Hence, linking soil biodiversity to ecosystem functions and services is the one challenge in soil biological research and sustainable soil management. Soil biota provides services that are beneficial to the productivity and sustainability of land use systems. This symposium aims to discuss how land use systems affect soil biodiversity in Europe and how soil biodiversity (i.e. the performance of functional groups) feeds back to soil functions and ecosystem services. Knowledge is mounting that a sustainable intensification of land use needs to include the conservation of processes and functions run by soil biota that are essential for self-preservation considering services provided by soil biota including soil biodiversity. The joined European agricultural policy including soil and biodiversity conservation is asking for surveys throughout Europe. The strong progress in developing methods for biodiversity determination in soil and the quantification of biota specific impacts should be mirrored by the contributions. Moreover, transversal interactions with socio-economical sciences should lead to the development of tools to assess soil management as a social-ecological issue.
This session welcomes oral and poster contributions that explore the role of soil biota and soil biodiversity for current and future land use systems:
(1) Response of soil biota to conventional or innovative land use practises/systems and measures to identify favourable management tools
(2) Quantifications and modelling of processes, ecosystem functions and/or services induced by soil organisms
(3) Suggestions of sustainable management practises in different land use systems and European regions
(4) Socio-economic approaches on cost-effects of soil biota and on the implementation of sustainable management practises.