Spatial patterns of vegetation, soils and landforms are recognized as sources of valuable information that can be used to infer the state and function of ecosystems. Complex interactions and feedbacks between climate, soils and biotic factors are involved in the development of landform-soil-vegetation patterns, and play an important role on the stability of landscapes. In addition, large shifts in the organization of vegetation and soils are associated with land degradation, frequently involving large changes in the functioning of landscapes. The present context of changes in both climate and land use imposes an urgent need for understanding the processes linked to the organization of vegetation and coevolving soils and landforms. This session will focus on ecogeomorphological and ecohydrological aspects of landscapes, conservation of soil resources, and the restoration of ecosystem functions. We welcome theoretical, modelling and empirical studies addressing the organization of vegetation and coevolving soils and landforms, and particularly, contributions with a wide appreciation of the soil erosion-vegetation relationships that rule the formation of landscape-level spatial patterns and their implications for the functioning, organization and restoration of landscapes in the present context of changes in climate and human uses.

We are proud to announce that Prof. Praveen Kumar (Lovell Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois, USA, Director of the US NSF Critical Zone Observatory for Intensively Managed Landscapes) has agreed to participate in the session with the invited talk "Co-evolution of landscape and carbon profile through depth: understanding the interplay between transport and biochemical dynamics".