Over the past fifty years nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) has become one of the most prominent techniques to determine the structure and conformation of organic and inorganic compounds. Nowadays, NMR is used for a large variety of applications such as H/D exchange, relaxation measurements, binding-induced peak shifts, and full NMR structure resolution. Moreover, recent advances in electronics allowed the development of NMR on solids and semi-solid samples, as well as evolution of in situ NMR equipments.

The second application field of NMR in soil sciences is imaging (MRI) of soil-water and tracer transport processes in soil columns (such as spatial and temporal changes of soil-water distributions or the movement of wetting fronts, root growth and water uptake). The third field is the application of NMR relaxometry and diffusometry for pore space exploration in natural porous media.

The main focus of this session is on the application of magnetic resonance techniques in the following fields:

1) Molecular properties of natural organic matter
2) Understanding the fate of contaminants in soils
3) Soil properties as affected by waste disposal
4) Petroleum chemistry
5) Assessment of archaeological soils
6) Soil-plant interactions
7) Water and tracer transport processes in soils
8) Pore space exploration by relaxometry/diffusometry

All participants are invited to submit a manuscript for publication in a Special Issue of The Open Magnetic Resonance Journal (Bentham Science Publishers, http://www.bentham.org/) to one of the convenors. Participants wishing to submit a manuscript can obtain the instructions to authors from one of the convenors. Submission deadline for manuscripts is the 24th April 2009.