Soils in cold-climate regions, particularly in high latitudes and high mountain areas, play a decisive role on the environmental dynamics of the terrestrial ecosystem. Some of these areas have experienced very significant warming trends during the last decades and soils are undergoing rapid change, occasionally with severe impacts on the environment.

The study of paleosols can provide data about past environments in cold-climate regions that may be used to better understand how soils have responded in the past to changing climate conditions. In the last decades a wide range of new methods and dating techniques have been used to reconstruct the landscape of the sedimentary record in cold environments.

The aim of the session “Soils in cold regions” is to bring to light the state of progress in knowledge of soils in cold regions, with a focus both on present and past soil processes. Unlocking the palaeoenvironmental information from paleosols in cold regions may contribute to reconstruct the landscape evolution and better understand how soils may react to future climate scenarios.