Soil degradation affects more than 52 billion hectares of land around the world and natural and man-made disturbance to the soil system can modify critical ecosystem functions. In the absence of appropriate management or restoration, soils would remain in a degraded state or even continue to decline. Therefore, sustainable management and rehabilitation of degraded soils can be key to restore the ability of the soil to support vegetation and provide multiple ecosystem services. In addition, the recent catastrophic events related with wildfires, brought to the forefront of public and scientific concern several questions related to the impact of increasing fire severity and burned area.  

In this session, we welcome contributions covering research describing experimental, observational, and theoretical studies. Topics of interest are (although not limited to): 1) Causes and impacts of land degradation and remedial actions for restoration at local, regional or global scales, 2) Soil quality or health indicators of ecosystem recovery and use of amendments in restoration and reconstructed soils, 4) Impacts of fire on land degradation, potential causes of fire, e.g. climate change, and development of strategies and tools for appropriate management of fire-affected areas.

Abstracts submitted to this session will be considered to be published in a special issue organized in the Journal of Environmental Management (IF=4.01) with the title "Fire in the Environment: Prevention, causes, impacts and management" (https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-environmental-management/call-for-papers/call-for-papers-of-virtual-special-issue-on-fire-in-the-envi)