The stabilization of organic matter in terrestrial and marine environments is one of the most ill-defined factors in global element cycles. The total stock of organic carbon in sediments, soils and marine dissolved organic matter (DOM) exceeds the amount of carbon in the atmosphere by orders of magnitude. Yet large uncertainties exist on the rates of and mechanisms behind the turnover of organic carbon on earth. The sequestration of organic carbon is a major research topic for a variety of scientific disciplines. Major technological advances in analytical chemistry, remote sensing or process-based modelling have led to significant advances over the past years. For this session we invite contributions from marine and terrestrial sciences, working with chemical, microbial or mathematical tools on the stabilization of organic matter in the different environments. Observational and experimental studies are welcome. Scales can range from molecular to global levels and from minutes to hundreds of millions of years. The main objective of this session is to advance the dialog among the different disciplines and to integrate knowledge of disciplines that traditionally have a low level of information exchange.