Wetland soils harbour complex ecosystems that globally represent approximately 10% of the Earth’s land surface and include lowland ricefields as the largest anthropogenic wetlands. The role of wetland in regulating global biogeochemical cycles is strongly influenced by temporary or permanent water saturation. The unique and often strongly changing redox conditions alter the role of wetland, peat and paddy soils as source, sink and transformer of elements and redox-sensitive substances. An improved insight in the interactions between redox conditions and element cycling will be needed to predict the environmental fate and transport of elements and compounds that occur naturally in wetlands and those that enter the system through anthropogenic sources.

We invite interdisciplinary contributions to all aspects of paddy, peat and wetland soils, specifically those improving our understanding of the regulation of soil processes and feedback mechanisms by interactions between hydrology, redox potential, redox-sensitive mineral compounds, amount and composition of organic matter, the structure and functions of soil biota, and the possible role as natural archives.

This session aims at bringing together experts and scientists from around the world to discuss and provide quantitative and mechanistic insights into the key factors regulating organic matter turnover in wetlands and its influence on global carbon source/sink functions (including emissions of greenhouse gases and dissolved organic matter dynamics), bioavailability and loss of nutrients and contaminants (e.g., N, P, Fe, Mn, S, As, Pb), microbial community structure and function, mineral transformations and soil development.

Keynote speaker
Prof. Ralf Conrad
Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology
www.mpi-marburg.mpg.de/conrad