Soil organic matter represents a major source of N for plants and constitutes the largest terrestrial C pool after oceans and geologic sinks, thus playing a paramount role in soil fertility, quality, and atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gasses. For these reasons, models designed to simulate soil organic matter dynamics have become important tools to assess the sustainability of agricultural systems, as well as changes in soil fertility, quality, C sequestration, and greenhouse gas emissions following soil management change scenarios.
This session will provide a forum for discussion of recent modeling and mechanistic studies on the stabilization and sequestration processes of organic and inorganic C in soils, N dynamics, and greenhouse gas emissions, covering any physical, chemical, and biological aspects related, for example, to the selective preservation and formation of recalcitrant organic compounds (e.g., humic substances and black C), occlusion by macro and microaggregation, identification of strategeies and practices which minimise greenhouse gas emissions, and chemical interaction with soil mineral particles and metal ions.