The progress in monitoring and mapping of soil organic carbon (SOC) over the last decade has demonstrated patterns in both spatial and vertical distribution of SOC in agricultural landscapes. These patterns appear to be related to differences in (historic) management as well as lateral redistribution of topsoil by tillage and water erosion. Hence, it can be questioned if the widely used paradigm that CO2 fluxes can be calculated from sequential SOC inventories of the topsoil is still valid. After all, such inventories do not take lateral fluxes of soil and SOC into account. This session addresses soil organic matter dynamics in complex landscapes and case studies showing how regional scale soil carbon balances can be improved. We welcome contributions on novel SOC analysis techniques, interpolation techniques for monitoring networks and experimental and modeling studies on SOC dynamics in a landscape context.