Soils are an important component of many biogeochemical cycles. They store and regulate fluxes of carbon, nitrogen, and other elements. How soils evolve and adapt to new conditions has strong implications for climate change, soil productivity and sustainable use. Steady progress is being made in understanding the complexity behind the mechanisms that drive soil fluxes and determine short and long term soil changes. This includes the effects of litter input, mineral interactions, temperature and moisture controls, microbial physiology and ecology, chemical kinetics, rhizosphere, and more.
The focus of this session is on soil processes, their model representations, and derived historical and future predictions. We aim to create a space for discussing the latest advances and challenges in the field of soil biogeochemical modelling, as well as to identify and exchange new ideas and research directions. We welcome studies that explore ideas either from a theoretical perspective or through validation against observations, in particular those using models as a research tool. In this context, we also encourage submissions looking at interactions and feedbacks between soils and vegetation or other ecosystem component. Simulations of future scenarios using new model developments and related uncertainties are additionally of interest.

Keynote talk by Stefano Manzoni:
“Disentangling temporal and stoichiometric controls on decomposer community traits – An analytical modelling approach”