This session is open to all contributions in biogeochemistry and ecology where stable isotope techniques are used as analytical tools, with a focus on stable isotopes of light elements (C, H, O, N, S, ...). We welcome studies from both terrestrial and aquatic (including marine) environments as well as methodological and experimental, theoretical and modeling studies that introduce new approaches or techniques (including natural abundance work, labeling studies, multi-isotope approaches, clumped and metal isotopes).

Stable isotopes and other novel tracers, such as carbonyl sulfide (COS) and clumped isotopes, help to identify and quantify biological, chemical and physical processes that drive Earth's biogeochemical cycling, atmospheric processes and biosphere-atmosphere exchange. Recent developments in analytical measurement techniques now offer the opportunity to investigate these tracers at unprecedented temporal and spatial resolution and precision.

This session includes contributions from field and laboratory experiments, latest instrument developments as well as theoretical and modelling activities that investigate and use the isotope composition of light elements (C, H, O, N) and their compounds as well as other novel tracers for biogeochemical and atmospheric research.

Topics addressed in this session include:
- Stable isotopes in carbon dioxide (CO2), water (H2O), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O)
- Novel tracers and biological analogues, such as COS
- Polyisotopocules ("clumped isotopes")
- Intramolecular stable isotope distributions ("isotopomer abundances")
- Analytical, method and modelling developments
- Flux measurements
- Quantification of isotope effects
- Non-mass dependent isotopic fractionation and related isotope anomalies

We are really excited to announce our solicited speakers:

Dr Laura Meredith
The University of Arizona
@DrLauraMeredith
http://www.laurameredith.com/

Prof. Thomas Röckmann
Utrecht University
https://www.uu.nl/staff/TRoeckmann/Profile

Stable and radiogenic isotopic records have been successfully used for
investigating various settings, such as palaeosols, lacustrine, loess, caves, peatlands, bogs, arid, evaporative and marine environments. We are
looking for contributions using isotopes along with mineralogical, sedimentological, biological, paleontological and chemical records in
order to unravel the past and present climate and environmental changes.
The session invites contributions presenting an applied as well as a
theoretical approach. We welcome papers related to both reconstructions
(at various timescales) as well as on fractionation factors, measurement, methods, proxy calibration, and verification.

Stable isotopes give a powerful tool used in many applications (biogeochemistry, atmospheric science, greenhouse gases, paleoclimate, hydrogeology, geology, forensics etc) and, as such, isotope data should fit-for-purpose. To produce reliable data and make trustworthy interpretations, data produced in different laboratories should be comparable (be on the same scale) and compatible (be within target uncertainty). However, the uncertainty provided often involves only the measurement repeatability on a few runs. There are no commonly agreed ways of uncertainty estimations and some uncertainty components may be missing from considerations. Thereafter, use of basic quality control tools such as performance charts, quality control materials and lab-to-lab comparisons is of high importance. This multi-disciplinary session aims to address aspects related to the quality of stable isotope data starting from calibrations, uncertainty estimation as well as various tools used for quality control.

Anthropogenic disturbance of the nitrogen (N) cycle has more than doubled the amount of reactive N circulating in the biosphere. Exchange of nitrogen gases between land and atmosphere are strongly affecting Earth’s atmospheric composition, air quality, climate change and human health. This session seeks to improve our understanding on how global changes impact N biogeochemistry in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and what atmospheric interactions will be most important in influencing the climate. We seek to link microbiological nitrogen processes and surface nitrogen gases flux with ecosystem dynamics, air quality and atmospheric chemistry. We will cover fluxes of various nitrogen gases and the underlying transformation processes in soils and sediments, e.g., fixing of atmospheric dinitrogen, release of nitrous acid (HONO), nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and ammonia (NH3) as well as interactions with ozone, volatile organic compounds, free radicals as well as aerosols in the atmosphere, and further impact on air quality. Further, the interactions of N cycling with other element cycles (e.g., carbon, phosphorus) in ecosystems and terrestrial-aquatic linkages, and feedbacks to biodiversity loss and water pollution will be explored. We welcome a wide range of studies including methods development and application of new devices, observational, experimental, and modeling approaches.

Ongoing climate change and a shorter return period of climate and hydrological extremes has been observed to affect the distribution and vitality of ecosystems. In many regions, available water is a crucial point of survival. Risk can be enhanced by the exposure and/or by the vulnerability of the affected ecosystem.
The session focuses on the complex assessment of all determining factors through a joint utilization of a broad spectrum of databases and methods (e.g. field and laboratory measurements, remote sensing, modelling and monitoring techniques) that can provide a suitable basis for developing long-term strategies for adaptation.
The session should provide a multidisciplinary platform for sharing experiences and discussing results of local and catchment scale case studies from a wider range of relevant fields such as
• observed impacts and damage chains in natural ecosystems induced by climate and hydrological extremes;
• correlation between the underlying environmental factors (e.g. climate, water holding capacity, soil characteristics) and the distribution/vitality of ecosystems;
• integrated application or comparison of databases and methods for the identification and complex assessment of ecosystem responses to abiotic stress factors;
• expected tendencies of abiotic risk factors affecting and limiting the survival of the vulnerable species.
Contributions are encouraged from international experiences, ongoing research activities as well as national, regional and local initiatives.

Non-destructive testing (NDT) methods have been increasingly used over the last decades in a wide range of engineering and geosciences applications. New theoretical developments, technological advances in both hardware and software resources as well as the progress achieved in surveying, data processing and interpretation have led to a tremendous growth of equipment reliability, allowing outstanding data quality and accuracy. To this effect, the potential of many optical, acoustic, electric and electromagnetic NDT methods for stand-alone use has been greatly investigated to date. Hence, these pieces of equipment have become popular for assessment and monitoring purposes in many fields of application.
Nevertheless, the requirements of a comprehensive site investigation may be complex and time-consuming and may involve multiple expertise and many pieces of equipment. The challenge is to step forward and provide effective integration between data outputs with different physical quantities, scale domains and resolutions. In this regard, enormous development opportunities relating to data fusion, integration and correlation between different NDT methods and theories are to be further investigated in the near future.
Within this framework, this Session primarily aims at disseminating contributions from state-of-the-art NDT methods and numerical developments, promoting the integration of existing equipment and the development of new algorithms, surveying techniques, methods and prototypes for effective monitoring and assessment of survey sites. Non-destructive testing techniques of interest are related – but not limited to – the application of acoustic emission (AE) testing, electromagnetic testing (ET), ground penetrating radar (GPR), geoelectric methods (GM), laser testing methods (LM), magnetic flux leakage (MFL), microwave testing, magnetic particle testing (MT), neutron radiographic testing (NR), radiographic testing (RT), thermal/infrared testing (IRT), ultrasonic testing (UT), seismic methods (SM), vibration analysis (VA), visual and optical testing (VT/OT).
The Session will focus on the application of different NDT methods and theories and will be related – but not limited to – the following investigation areas:
- advanced data fusion;
- advanced interpretation methods;
- design and development of new surveying equipment and prototypes;
- assessment and monitoring methods for site investigations;
- assessment and monitoring protocols and procedures for site investigations;
- comprehensive and inclusive information data systems for the monitoring and assessment of survey sites;
- numerical simulation and modelling of data outputs with different physical quantities, scale domains and resolutions;
- advances in NDT methods, numerical developments and applications (stand-alone use of existing and state-of-the-art NDTs).

Airborne observations are one major link to get an overall picture of processes within the Earth environment during measurement campaigns. This includes application to derive atmospheric parameters, surface properties of vegetation, soil and minerals and dissolved or suspended matter in inland water and the ocean. Ground based systems and satellites are other key information sources to complement the airborne data sets. All these systems have their pros and cons, but a comprehensive view of the observed system is generally best obtained by means of a combination of all three. Aircraft operations strongly depend on weather conditions either to obtain the atmospheric phenomenon of interest or the required surface-viewing conditions and hence require sophisticated flight planning. They can cover large areas in the horizontal and vertical space with adaptable temporal sampling. Future satellite instruments can be tested and airborne platforms and systems are widely used in the development process. The validation of operational satellite systems and applications is a topic that has come increasingly into focus with the European Copernicus program in recent years. The large number of instruments available on aircraft enables a broad and flexible range of applications. The range includes sensors for meteorological parameters, trace gases and cloud/aerosol particles and more complex systems like high spectral resolution lidar, hyperspectral imaging at wavelengths from the visible to thermal infra-red and synthetic aperture radar. The development of smaller state-of-the-art instruments, the combination of more and more complex sets of instruments simultaneously on one platform, with improved accuracy and high data acquisition speed together with high accuracy navigation and inertial measurements enables more complex campaign strategies even on smaller aircraft or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). This will further increase the capabilities of the existing fleet of airborne research.

This session will bring together aircraft operators and the research community to present
• an overview of the current status of airborne related research
• recent airborne field campaigns and their outcomes
• multi-aircraft campaigns
• satellite calibration/validation campaigns
• sophisticated airborne instrument setups and observations
• advanced airborne instrument developments
• UAV applications
• future plans for airborne research

Atmosphere and Cryosphere are closely linked and need to be investigated as an interdisciplinary subject. Most of the cryospheric areas have undergone severe changes in last decades while such areas have been more fragile and less adaptable to global climate changes. This AS-CR session invites model- and observational-based investigations on any aspects of linkages between atmospheric processes and snow and ice on local, regional and global scales. Emphasis is given on the Arctic, high latitudes and altitudes, mountains, sea ice, Antarctic regions. In particular, we encourage studies that address aerosols (such as Black Carbon, Organic Carbon, dust, volcanic ash, diatoms, bioaerosols, bacteria, etc.) and changes in the cryosphere, e.g., effects on snow/ice melt and albedo. The session also focus on dust transport, aeolian deposition, and volcanic dust, including health, environmental or climate impacts at high latitudes, high altitudes and cold Polar Regions. We emphasize contributions on biological and ecological sciences including dust-organisms interactions, cryoconites, bio-albedo, eco-physiological, biogeochemical and genomic studies. Related topics are light absorbing impurities, cold deserts, dust storms, long-range transport, glaciers darkening, polar ecology, and more. The scientific understanding of the AS-CR interaction needs to be addressed better and linked to the global climate predictions scenarios.

Progressively stricter requirements in geophysical prospecting, in urban and inter-urban monitoring make it important to look continuously for innovative solutions to new and old complex problems. In particular, investigation and monitoring of pollution, hydrological resources, energy efficiency, cultural heritage, cities and transportation infrastructures nowadays require technological and methodological innovations of geophysical and sensing techniques in order to properly understand the limits of the current state of art and to identify where possible the most convenient strategies to overcome limitations of current approaches. This goal can be achieved either with more advanced solutions in a general sense or with dedicated solutions, particularly suitable for the specific problem at hand.
Integrated prospecting, refined data processing, new models, hardware innovations, new ICT information and telecommunications systems can and should cooperate with each other in this sense. It is important that the scientific community finds a moment for considering the connection between adjacent aspects of the same problem, e.g. to achieve improved geophysical data, safe and reliable environmental and structural monitoring, improved processing as much as possible.
The session “ Innovative instrumentations, techniques, geophysical methods and models for near surface geophysics, cities and transportation infrastructures aims to propose one such moment, where multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary competences can interact with each other, possibly finding possible new ways to cooperate and to exchange experiences reciprocally to reach sustainable solutions.

The session focuses on the variability of the tropospheric and stratospheric chemical composition on diurnal, seasonal and longer timescales and looks at the processes driving this variability. Special emphasis is put on the scientific value of high-quality long-term measurement data sets and supporting model simulations. Both approaches contribute to improved understanding of the mechanisms that control the variability of atmospheric chemical composition (including multiple gaseous species). Presentations related to the projections of the atmospheric composition are welcome in this session as well.
Researchers are invited to present novel scientific results from mid- and long-term observational time series from various programmes and networks such as the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) Programme, European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP), Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC), Southern Hemisphere Additional Ozonesondes (SHADOZ), Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), regular airborne (e.g. CARIBIC, IAGOS, CONTRAIL) and other campaigns as well as satellite data and model simulations. Data relevant to tropospheric and stratospheric composition, in particular related to ozone depletion, climate change and air quality as well as firn data on past atmospheric composition are welcome. We welcome contributions from multi-year modeling studies and inter-comparison exercises which address past and future tropospheric or stratospheric composition changes, carried out in the framework of international projects and initiatives. The session will be dedicated in particular to the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the GAW Programme.

#FlumeFriday is a twitter hashtag established by the HYDRALAB+ project, to share insights and expertise from all types of physical modelling experiments and to build an active online community to support hydraulic experimentalists. #FlumeFriday provides an opportunity to improve the communication of scientific results to the public and to broaden societal involvement in laboratory activities. Since its inception in March 2016, participants and followers of the hashtag have grown extensively with worldwide participation, and many different types of experiment represented in posts.

This online community provides an opportunity to bring together the scientists involved in experimental work who come from many different disciplines including, but not limited to, geologists, geographers, biologists, engineers, geochemists and sedimentologists. These experts bring complementary field, laboratory, numerical and modelling skills to understand the processes controlling environmental flow dynamics using both established and novel instrumentation and techniques.

In this session, we welcome submissions from all our past, present and future #FlumeFriday contributors to share more details about their innovative and novel approaches to experimental modelling, including any interesting and unusual results.

We would also encourage contributions focused on methodologies, instrumentation and techniques, both established and innovative, to share knowledge on how to overcome difficulties and improve results. A particular emphasis is put on recent advances or new challenges associated with the idea of using low-cost and easy-to-find materials as hydro/morphodynamic or bio/geochemical markers or surrogates. The sharing of new strategies and initiatives to support an open science approach in experimental hydraulics is also welcome.

The interaction of processes between the land surface, the planetary boundary layer (PBL), and the free troposphere are crucial for the understanding of weather and climate including extremes such as heavy precipitation and droughts. This requires an advanced understanding and modeling of the exchange of momentum, water, energy, and carbon at interfaces. In this session, we present and discuss current research activities contributing to this understanding, including L-A interaction and feedback to the diurnal cycle of the PBL, clouds, and precipitation as well as surface fluxes such as evapotranspiration and entrainment. We accept observational and modeling approaches to address these challenges. With respect to the observations, emphasis is put on the application of new sensor synergies, e.g., using active remote sensing for studying land surface exchange processes and entrainment at the PBL top, which have been addressed in field campaigns. With respect to theoretical understanding and modeling, we are focusing on new insights by feedback diagrams and grey zone experiments down to the large eddy simulation scale.

The session is addressed to experimentalists and modellers working on land surface fluxes from local to regional scales. The programme is open to a wide range of new studies in micrometeorology. The topics include the development of new devices, measurement techniques and experimental design methods, as well as novel findings on surface layer theory and parametrization at the local scale. The theoretical parts encompass soil-vegetation-atmosphere transport, internal boundary-layer theories and flux footprint analyses, etc.. Of special interest are comparisons of experimental data, parametrizations and models. This includes energy and trace gas fluxes (inert and reactive) as well as water, carbon dioxide and other GHG fluxes. Specific focus is given to outstanding problems in land surface boundary layer descriptions such as complex terrain, energy balance closure, stable stratification and night time fluxes, as well as to the dynamic interactions with atmosphere, plants (in canopy and above canopy) and soils including the scale problems in atmosphere and soil exchange processes.

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in the atmosphere are globally dominated by a number of primary emission sources. These include biogenic sources (e.g. emissions from plants, flowers) or microbial VOCs (mVOCs), as well as anthropogenic and pyrogenic emissions. Once in the atmosphere, VOCs are oxidized and serve as precursors of secondary organic aerosol. They also contribute to the formation of tropospheric ozone, and can affect atmospheric oxidants. Mechanistic understanding of chemical pathways and surface-atmosphere exchange in rural and urban environments requires synergy between measurements at different spatiotemporal scales including laboratory oxidation experiments, embracing the broad diversity of VOC sources in the atmosphere. From a direct health perspective the largest human exposure to VOCs is likely not outdoors but in the indoor atmosphere. The use of solvents and consumer-care products by humans have also emerged as a prominent source of outdoor atmospheric VOCs. Extension of the range of VOCs measured in urban environments reveal large contributions of longer-chain semivolatile VOCs, and recent measurement technologies for extremely low volatility compounds (ELVOC) have bridged the gas-aerosol phase continuum.
We encourage a wide range of submissions of contributions based on in-situ measurements of VOCs at different scales, outdoors and indoors, flux measurements of emission and deposition processes, satellite observations, laboratory experiments and modeling.

Citizen science (the involvement of the public in scientific processes) is gaining momentum in one discipline after another, thereby more and more data on biodiversity, earthquakes, weather, climate, health issues among others are being collected at different scales that can extend the frontiers of knowledge. Successful citizen observatories can potentially be scaled up in order to contribute to larger environmental and policy strategies and actions (such as the European Earth Observation monitoring systems) and to be integrated in GEOSS and Copernicus. Making credible contributions to science can empower citizens to actively participate in environmental decision making, can raise awareness about environmental issues and can help bridge the science-society gap. Often, citizen science is seen in the context of Open Science, which is a broad movement embracing Open Data, Open Access, Open Educational Resources, Open Source, Open Methodology, and Open Peer Review to transparently publish and share scientific research - thus leveraging Citizen Science and Reproducible Research.

Both, open science in general and citizen science in particular, pose great challenges for researchers, and to support the goals of the various openness initiatives, this session looks at what is possible nowadays and what is ready for application in geosciences. Success stories, failures, best practices and solutions will be presented, in addition to various related networks. We aim to show how researchers, citizens, funding agencies, governments and other stakeholders can benefit from citizen science and open science, acknowledging the drawbacks and highlighting the opportunities available for geoscientists.

In this session, we are looking for successful approaches of working with citizen science and open science to bridge the gap between a multitude of stakeholders in research, policy, economy, practice and society at large by finding emerging environmental issues and empowering citizens. This session shall be an open space to exchange experiences and to present either successful examples or failed efforts. Learning from others and understanding what to adopt and what to change help the participants in their own undertakings and new initiatives, so that they become future success stories.

We want to ask and find answers to the following questions:
Which approaches can be used in Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences?
What are the biggest challenges and how to overcome them?
What kind of citizen scientist involvement and open science strategies exist?
How to ensure transparency in project results and analyses?
How to evaluate successful bridging of the science-society-gap?

Carbon budgets are a finite quantity of carbon that can be emitted whilst holding warming below some given temperature level, such as the 1.5 and 2.0ºC temperature limits specified in the Paris Agreement. Carbon budgets emerge from the near-proportional relationship between total anthropogenic emissions of CO2 and change in global mean temperature seen in virtually all Earth System Models. This relationship is known as the Transient Climate Response to Cumulative CO2 Emissions (TCRE). Carbon budgets and the associated cumulative emissions framework have recently been used to: estimate the fraction of known fossil fuel reserves that can be burnt, attribute historical responsibility for climate change, and to scrutinize national emissions commitments towards meeting the Paris Agreement goal.

The session invites contributions examining a wide range of aspects related to carbon budgets and the TCRE framework, including: the governing mechanisms that lead to the emergence of TCRE, how carbon budgets are affected by previously unquantified feedbacks (e.g. permafrost carbon feedback, wetland methane feedback) and non-CO2 forcings (e.g. aerosols, non-CO2 greenhouse gases ext.), quantification of the remaining carbon budget to reach given temperature goals (for example, from the Paris Agreement), uncertainties associated with these budgets, the role of pathway dependence, and the behaviour of TCRE in response to artificial CO2 removal from the atmosphere. Contributions from the fields of climate policy and economics focused on applications of carbon budgets are also encouraged.

Data assimilation is becoming more important as a method to make predictions of Earth system states. Increasingly, coupled models for different compartments of the Earth system are used. This allows for making advantage of varieties of observations, in particular remotely sensed data, in different compartments. This session focuses on weakly and strongly coupled assimilation of in situ and remotely sensed measurement data across compartments of the Earth system. Examples are data assimilation for the atmosphere-ocean system, data assimilation for the atmosphere-land system and data assimilation for the land surface-subsurface system. Optimally exploiting observations in a compartment of the terrestrial system to update also states in other compartments of the terrestrial system still has strong methodological challenges. It is not yet clear that fully coupled approaches, where data are directly used to update states in other compartments, outperform weakly coupled approaches, where states in other compartments are only updated indirectly, through the action of the model equations. Coupled data assimilation allows to determine the value of different measurement types, and the additional value of measurements to update states across compartments. Another aspect of scientific interest for weakly or fully coupled data assimilation is the software engineering related to coupling a data assimilation framework to a physical model, in order to build a computationally efficient and flexible framework.

We welcome contributions on the development and applications of coupled data assimilation systems involving models for different compartments of the Earth system like atmosphere and/or ocean and/or sea ice and/or vegetation and/or soil and/or groundwater and/or surface water bodies. Contributions could for example focus on data value with implications for monitoring network design, parameter or bias estimation or software engineering aspects. In addition, case studies which include a precise evaluation of the data assimilation performance are of high interest for the session.

Cities all over the world are facing rising population densities. This leads to increasing fractions of built-up and sealed areas, consequencing in a more and more altered and partly disrupted water balance - both in terms of water quantities and qualities. On top, climate change is altering precipitation regimes.

This session focuses on according urban ecohydrological problems and approaches to solve them spanning from technical to nature-based solutions in different time and spatial scales from the building to the whole city.

Using a wide range of sensors and platforms, remote sensing allows examining and gathering information about an object or a place from a distance. A key development in remote sensing has been the increased availability of data with very high-temporal, spatial and spectral resolution. In the last decades, several types of remote sensing data, including optical, radar, LiDAR from terrestrial, UAV, aerial and satellite platform, have been used to detect, classify, evaluate and measure the Earth surface, including different vegetation covers and forest structure. For the forest sector, such information allow the efficient monitoring of changes over time and space, in support of sustainable forest management, forest, and carbon inventory or for monitoring forest health and their disturbances. Remote Sensing data can provide both qualitatively and quantitatively information about forest ecosystems. In a qualitative analysis forest cover types and species composition can be classified, whereas the quantitative analysis can measure and estimate different forest structure parameters related to single trees (e.g., DBH, height, basal area, timber volume, etc.) and to the whole stand (e.g. number of trees per unit area, distribution, etc.). However, to meet the various information requirements, different data sources should be adopted according to the application, the level of detail required and the extension of the area under study. The integration of in-situ measurements with satellite/airborne/UAV imagery, Structure from Motion, LiDAR and geo-information systems offer new possibilities, especially for interpretation, mapping and measuring of forest parameters and will be a challenge for future research and application. This session explores the potentials and limitations of several types of remote sensing applications in forestry, with the focus on the identification and integration of different methodologies and techniques from different sensors and in-situ data for providing qualitative and quantities forest information.

The nature of science has changed: it has become more interconnected, collaborative, multidisciplinary, and data intensive. Accordingly, the main aim of this session is to create a common space for interdisciplinary scientific discussion, where EGU-GA delegates involved in geoscientific networks can share ideas and present the research activities carried out in their networks. The session represents an invaluable opportunity for different networks and their members to identify possible synergies and establish new collaborations, find novel links between disciplines, and design innovative research approaches.

Part of the session will be focused on COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Actions*. The first edition of the session (successfully held in 2018) was actually entirely dedicated to the COST networking programme and hosted scientific contributions stemming from 25 Actions, covering different areas of the geosciences (sky, earth and subsurface monitoring, terrestrial life and ecosystems, earth's changing climate and natural hazards, sustainable management of resources and urban development, environmental contaminants, and big data management). Inspiring and fruitful discussions took place; the session was very well attended. We are looking forward to continuing the dialogue this year and to receiving new contributions from COST Action Members.

Another part of the session will be dedicated to the activities of other national and international scientific networks, associations, as well teams of scientists who are carrying out collaborative research projects.

Finally, the session is of course open to everyone! Accordingly, abstracts authored by scientists not involved in wide scientific networks are most welcome, too! In fact, in 2018 we received a good number of such abstracts, submitted by individual scientists or small research teams who wished to disseminate the results of their studies in front of the multidisciplinary audience that characterizes this session, as an alternative to making a presentation in a thematic session. This may be a productive way to broaden the perspective and find new partners for future interdisciplinary research ventures. We hope to receive this kind of abstracts this year, as well.


-- Notes --

* COST (www.cost.eu) is a EU-funded programme that enables researchers to set up their interdisciplinary research networks (the “Actions”), in Europe and beyond. COST provides funds for organising conferences, workshops, meetings, training schools, short scientific exchanges and other networking activities in a wide range of scientific topics. Academia, industry, public- and private-sector laboratories work together in Actions, sharing knowledge, leveraging diversity, and pulling resources. Every Action has a main objective, defined goals and clear deliverables. This session was started as a follow up initiative of COST Action TU1208 “Civil engineering applications of Ground Penetrating Radar” (2013-2017, www.GPRadar.eu).

This session invites contributions on the latest developments and results in lidar remote sensing of the atmosphere, covering
• new lidar techniques as well as applications of lidar data for model verification and assimilation,
• ground-based, airborne, and space-borne lidar systems,
• unique research systems as well as networks of instruments,
• lidar observations of aerosols and clouds, thermodynamic parameters and wind, and trace-gases.
Atmospheric lidar technologies have shown significant progress in recent years. While, some years ago, there were only a few research systems, mostly quite complex and difficult to operate on a longer-term basis because a team of experts was continuously required for their operation, advancements in laser transmitter and receiver technologies have resulted in much more rugged systems nowadays, many of which are already operated routinely in networks and some even being automated and commercially available. Consequently, also more and more data sets with very high resolution in range and time are becoming available for atmospheric science, which makes it attractive to consider lidar data not only for case studies but also for extended model comparison statistics and data assimilation. Here, ceilometers provide not only information on the cloud bottom height but also profiles of aerosol and cloud backscatter signals. Scanning Doppler lidars extend the data to horizontal and vertical wind profiles. Raman lidars and high-spectral resolution lidars provide more details than ceilometers and measure particle extinction and backscatter coefficients at multiple wavelengths. Other Raman lidars measure water vapor mixing ratio and temperature profiles. Differential absorption lidars give profiles of absolute humidity or other trace gases (like ozone, NOx, SO2, CO2, methane etc.). Depolarization lidars provide information on the shapes of aerosol and cloud particles. In addition to instruments on the ground, lidars are operated from airborne platforms in different altitudes. Even the first space-borne missions are now in orbit while more are currently in preparation. All these aspects of lidar remote sensing in the atmosphere will be part of this session.

Remote sensing techniques are widely used to estimate and monitor the relationship between vegetation dynamics and the water cycle. Measurements of vegetation water content, transpiration and water stress contribute to a better global understanding of the water movement in the soil-plant system, which is critical for the detection and monitoring of droughts and their impact on biomass. With the number of applications and (planned) missions increasing, this session aims to bring researchers together to discuss the current state in the remote observation of the interactions between vegetation and hydrology. We aim to (1) discuss novel research and findings, (2) exchange views on what should be done to push the field forward, and (3) identify current major challenges.

We encourage authors to submit presentations on:
• Modelling studies,
• Remote sensing data analyses,
• New hypothesis,
• Enlightening opinions.

Geofluids (i.e. fluids located in the subsurface) are increasingly becoming of interest due to their significant role as natural resources. These fluids span a vast range of geological environments including groundwater drinking resources, shale gas and oil, deep/shallow geothermal resources and hydrothermal mineral resources. Despite being valuable resources, geofluids are both vulnerable to contamination or may themselves represent a potential source of contamination through externally-driven mechanisms, as in the case of shale gas extraction, CO2 leaking or land use for agriculture purposes. Ont he other hand geofluids themselves can be a source of natural contamination as in the geogenic contamination of groundwater resources containing elevated levels of trace elements including arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), iron (Fe), and uranium (U), amongst others. Strategic management of geofluids and protection of geological resources related to them is indispensable for the future sustainable development of these societal and economically important resources. The characterization of geofluids and their behaviour in natural or artificial (human-driven) circumstances requires a deep understanding of complex physical, geochemical and microbiological processes. They are influenced directly by geological setting, structural evolution, and fluid flow systems.

The aim of this session is to foster scientific discussion between those with interest in a range of geofluid systems to better understand the role which these fluids have as socio-environmental and economic resources. The session emphasises the importance of lithological & mineralogical characterizationof various systems including in aquifers for a range of geogenic contaminants in groundwater, specifically addressing the source pathways and mobilisation mechanisms. The session also welcomes work including fluid flow, hydrology, geochemistry, environmental tracers, microbial investigations and both numerical and statistical modelling in support of fluid and resource management.

The session is supported by the RGFC-IAH (‘Regional Groundwater Flow Commission’ of International Association of Hydrogeologists) and the EU H2020 ENeRAG (‘Excellency Network Building for Comprehensive Research and Assessment of Geofluids’) project.

The session gathers geoscientific aspects such as dynamics, reactions, and environmental/health consequences of radioactive materials that are massively released accidentally (e.g., Fukushima and Chernobyl nuclear power plant accidents, wide fires, etc.) and by other human activities (e.g., nuclear tests).

The radioactive materials are known as polluting materials that are hazardous for human society, but are also ideal markers in understanding dynamics and chemical/biological/electrical reactions chains in the environment. Thus, the radioactive contamination problem is multi-disciplinary. In fact this topic involves regional and global transport and local reactions of radioactive materials through atmosphere, soil and water system, ocean, and organic and ecosystem, and its relation with human and non-human biota. The topic also involves hazard prediction and nowcast technology.

By combining >30 year (halftime of Cesium 137) monitoring data after the Chernobyl Accident in 1986, >5 year dense measurement data by the most advanced instrumentation after the Fukushima Accident in 2011, and other events, we can improve our knowledgebase on the environmental behavior of radioactive materials and its environmental/biological impact. This should lead to improved monitoring systems in the future including emergency response systems, acute sampling/measurement methodology, and remediation schemes for any future nuclear accidents.

The following specific topics have traditionally been discussed:
(a) Atmospheric Science (emissions, transport, deposition, pollution);
(b) Hydrology (transport in surface and ground water system, soil-water interactions);
(c) Oceanology (transport, bio-system interaction);
(d) Soil System (transport, chemical interaction, transfer to organic system);
(e) Forestry;
(f) Natural Hazards (warning systems, health risk assessments, geophysical variability);
(g) Measurement Techniques (instrumentation, multipoint data measurements);
(h) Ecosystems (migration/decay of radionuclides).

The session consists of updated observations, new theoretical developments including simulations, and improved methods or tools which could improve observation and prediction capabilities during eventual future nuclear emergencies. New evaluations of existing tools, past nuclear contamination events and other data sets also welcome.

The Tibetan Plateau and surrounding mountain regions, known as the Third Pole, cover an area of > 5 million km2 and are considered to be the water tower of Asia. The Pan Third Pole expands on both the north-south and the east-west directions, going across the Tibetan Plateau, Pamir, Hindu Kush, Iran Plateau, Caucasian and Carpathian, and covering an area of about 20 million km2. Like the Arctic and Antarctica, the Pan Third Pole’s environment is extremely sensitive to global climate change. In recent years, scientists from around the globe have increased observational, remote sensing and numerical modeling research related to the Pan Third Pole in an effort to quantify and predict past, current and future scenarios. Co-sponsored by TPE (www.tpe.ac.cn), this session is dedicated to studies of Pan Third Pole atmosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere and their interactions with global change. Related contributions are welcomed.

Changes in seasonal timing affect species and ecosystem response to environmental change. Observations of plant and animal phenology as well as remote sensing and modeling studies document complex interactions and raise many open questions.

We invite contributions with cross-disciplinary perspectives that address seasonality changes based on recent plant and animal phenological observations, pollen monitoring, historical documentary sources, or seasonality measurements using climate data, remote sensing, flux measurements or modeling studies. Contributions across all spatial and temporal scales are welcome that compare and integrate seasonality changes, study effects of long-term climate change or single extreme events, emphasize applications and phenology informed decision-making, discuss species interactions and decoupling, advance our understanding of how seasonality change affects carbon budgets and atmosphere/biosphere feedbacks, and integrate phenology into Earth System Models.

We emphasize phenology informed applications for decision-making and environmental assessment, public health, agriculture and forest management, mechanistic understanding of the phenological processes, and effects of changing phenology on biomass production and carbon budgets. We also welcome contributions addressing international collaboration and program-building initiatives including citizen science networks and data analyses.

One of the big challenges in Earth system science consists in providing reliable climate predictions on sub-seasonal, seasonal, decadal and longer timescales. The resulting data have the potential to be translated into climate information leading to a better assessment of multi-scale global and regional climate-related risks.
The latest developments and progress in climate forecasting on subseasonal-to-decadal timescales will be discussed and evaluated in this session. This will include presentations and discussions of predictions for a time horizon of up to ten years from dynamical ensemble and statistical/empirical forecast systems, as well as the aspects required for their application: forecast quality assessment, multi-model combination, bias adjustment, downscaling, etc.
Following the new WCPR strategic plan for 2019-2029, prediction enhancements are solicited from contributions embracing climate forecasting from an Earth system science perspective. This includes the study of coupled processes, impacts of coupling and feedbacks, and analysis/verification of the coupled atmosphere-ocean, atmosphere-land, atmosphere-hydrology, atmosphere-chemistry & aerosols, atmosphere-ice, ocean-hydrology, ocean-ice, ocean-chemistry and climate-biosphere (including human component). Contributions are also sought on initialization methods that optimally use observations from different Earth system components, on assessing and mitigating the impacts of model errors on skill, and on ensemble methods.
We also encourage contributions on the use of climate predictions for climate impact assessment, demonstrations of end-user value for climate risk applications and climate-change adaptation and the development of early warning systems.

A special focus will be put on the use of operational climate predictions (C3S, NMME, S2S), results from the CMIP5-CMIP6 decadal prediction experiments, and climate-prediction research and application projects (e.g. EUCP, APPLICATE, PREFACE, MIKLIP, MEDSCOPE, SECLI-FIRM, S2S4E).

Solicited talk:
Multi-year prediction of ENSO
By Jing-Jia Luo from the Institute for Climate and Application Research (ICAR), Nanjing University of Science Information and Technology, China

Ensuring long-term water sustainability for increasing human populations is a common goal for water resource managers. Measuring evapotranspiration (ET) at watershed or river-reach scales, upland or urban areas is required to estimate how much water can be apportioned for human needs while maintaining healthy vegetation and habitat for wildlife.
Consequently, much research has been devoted to this topic. However although there have been many advances in meteorological equipment and observations, more universal recognition of the impact of climate and land cover changes on evaporation and hydrology, and the increased accessibility of many parts of the world, evaporation from much of the globe remains elusive to quantify. This is particularly true in areas with few meteorological observations, in regions where precipitation is particularly hard to predict such as in arid and semi-arid or mountain environments. ET measurements are often made on local scales, but scaling up has been problematic due to spatial and temporal variability.
There are challenges associated with handling temporal variability over complex agro-climatic regions and in places with strong effects of unpredictable climate oscillations. For instance, crop/plant coefficients vary seasonally, particularly for riparian, upland vegetation, and urban greenery; traditional approaches of ET estimation commonly neglect the heterogeneity of microclimate, density, species, and phenology that have often led to gross overestimates of plant water use.
In this session, we want to focus on quantifying evapotranspiration dynamics in diverse climates and environments as a tool for improving hydrologic assessments and predictions at a catchment scale. Remote sensing products in many cases are the only spatially distributed information available to account for seasonal climate and vegetation variability and are thus extremely valuable data sources for ET estimation on larger scales.
We invite researchers to contribute theoretical and empirical ET model applications for a variety of dryland vegetation associations and other sensitive environments. We welcome studies that estimate ET using both prognostic and diagnostic approaches from process-based models that rely on the integration of precipitation and soil-vegetation dynamics to a more direct estimation of ET using e.g. remote sensing based data streams. Applications in drought-prone forests, rangelands, mountain and urban areas at a range of spatial and temporal scales are encouraged.

The originality of the session is to emphasize on the central position of human activities in environmental research (both terrestrial and atmospheric), as a driving factor and/or a response, by combining different spatio-temporal scales.
Continental environments (under various climatic conditions) experience profound societal and physical changes, which prompt scientists to investigate the complex interactions between environmental functioning and human activities.
The complexity originates from the multiplicity of factors involved and resulting spatial and temporal variabilities, of their multiple origins in time (historical integration) and/or legacy.
As a consequence, causal links in this societal-environmental relationship are difficult to establish but, it is fundamental to understand these causal links to adapt, conserve, protect, preserve and restore the functioning of the environment as well as human activities. From this point of view, the geographical approach highlights the relationships (or their absence) through the expression of the spatial and temporal trajectories of the processes studied by clarifying the observation of signals.
The ensuing issues on the relevance of indicators used in different supports of nowadays research (imagery, archives, models ...) are raised as a methodological open up.
In this context, oral and poster presentations dealing with any studies related to the following issue(s) are welcome:
- human forcing on the environments and environmental resilience
- response of socio-systems to environmental changes
- scenarios, prospective and retrospective models of the evolution of environments and human activities
- management modes (adaptive management) of anthropised continental environments, reciprocity, mutual benefits (ecosystem services), positive feedback

The session may include the following methodological aspects:
- in situ metrology,
- statistical and numerical modeling,
- spatio-temporal analysis,
- remote Sensing,
- surveys,
- landscape analysis,
- paleoenvironmental approach,
at various scales:
- spatial scales, from the station and site through watershed,
- time scales from the event to the Holocene.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (or Global Goals for Sustainable Development) are a collection of 17 global goals set by the United Nations Development Programme.The formal name for the SDGs is: "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development." That has been shortened to "2030 Agenda." The goals are broad and interdependent, yet each has a separate list of targets to achieve. Achieving all 169 targets would signal accomplishing all 17 goals. The SDGs cover social and economic development issues including poverty, hunger, health, education, global warming, gender equality, water, sanitation, energy, urbanization, environment and social justice.
For this interdisciplinary session, we invite contributions discussing How Earth, Planetary and Space Scientists can address UN Sustainable Development Goals . We shall discuss the relevance of fields of research disciplines covered by EGU, and how they can inform and support society government bodies, and stakeholders for the SDGs.
The session will include invited and contributed oral papers, as well as interactive posters, and panel discussions.

The Arctic has experienced much greater warming than the global average in recent decades. Current climate models project that this Arctic warming trend will continue in this century. At present, more than 15% its land is underlain with permafrost and contains a large amount of vulnerable carbon. Further, the region accounts for about one half of the world’s wetlands and has large area of aquatic ecosystems including lakes and ponds, which are a major source of atmospheric methane (CH4). Permafrost degradation has been observed in the region. With thawing permafrost, in dry areas of terrestrial ecosystems under well-drained conditions, soil decomposition is dominated by aerobic reactions, leading to carbon dioxide (CO2) release, while in wet areas under poorly-drained conditions, more CH4 is produced through methanogenesis process. In addition, thawing lakes and ponds have also been observed as a major CH4 emission source. This session calls for either field investigations or modeling studies that focus on elucidating processes of and controls to carbon cycling and quantifying CO2 and CH4 emissions from land and aquatic ecosystems and their impacts on the global climate system.

Snow and ice can capture and store contaminants both local and global in origin. The decrease in glacier cover, snow cover and sea ice in response to climate affects cycling of airborne impurities in polar and alpine environments, accelerating and enhancing their release. In this context snow and ice act as a secondary source for numerous organic and inorganic atmospheric contaminants that were deposited on their surface during recent decades, including persistent organic pollutants, radioactive species, microplastics, pesticides, and heavy metals. The release of contaminants from snow and ice to glacier forefields, rivers and seas might pose a hazard to these ecosystems and to human health, particularly under accelerated melt conditions.

Identification and assessment of this hazard relies, for each contaminant class, on the understanding of processes that control their accumulation, release and downstream transport. The physical and chemical forms in which contaminants are removed from the atmosphere and hydrosphere may further affect their interactions with mineral substances and biota. Existing studies suggest that the contaminant release process is not linear, and that interactions between meltwater, supraglacial debris and glacial microbiology may be crucial in the accumulation and transport of contaminants in glacier catchments. For example, evidence is mounting that cryoconite can efficiently accumulate radionuclides from anthropogenic sources to potentially hazardous levels in glaciers around the world. At the same time, the high biological activity present in cryoconite could enhance the degradation of organic pollutants, with important implications for remediation. A portion of contaminants released from glaciers may also be stored in their proglacial zones as shown by the very high concentrations of radionuclides found by several recent studies. The effects of contaminant transport on the pro-glacial environment and downstream communities remain uncertain, but improved understanding of the impacts of contaminants in land ice, sea ice, and snow is clearly warranted.

The session aims to contribute to the development of this emerging and interdisciplinary field, welcoming presentations from across cryospheric, hydrological, and biogeochemical sciences, and other research areas.

Spatially continuous data in biogeosciences are urgently requested to assess patterns and trends in ecosystem dynamics. Remote sensing is a powerful tool to provide such data and methods for its application to estimate ecosystem variables evolved rapidly during the recent years. New sensors deliver large hyperspectral, LiDAR and Radar datasets requesting new approaches to dealing with Big Data. In this context, machine learning algorithms are frequently used to link large remote sensing data to ecosystem variables. In this session, we welcome contributions which present novel approaches of mapping, monitoring and modelling ecosystem characteristics combining machine learning with remotely sensed data with a special focus on products to estimate ecosystem processes, functions and services.

Terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems of the boreal to polar regions face tremendous alterations due to a fast changing climate. Besides geophysical and hydrological impacts like vanishing permafrost, coastal erosion and altered runoff, biogeochemical cycles are highly affected by the ongoing changes. Although we are completely aware of the importance of high latitude ecosystems for instance for carbon sequestration, we have a restricted understanding of the biogeochemical processes especially in terrestrial ecosystems. This session aims to bring together scientists working on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in the high latitudes, both in Arctic, Antarctic, and Boreal regions, reaching from microbiological functioning and stoichiometric constraints of organic matter turnover and nutrient cycling (e.g. nitrogen, phosphorus) to carbon stabilization and trace gas emissions. We further welcome contributions on interactions between vegetation, microbiota and soils and/or sediments, and the exchange between terrestrial and aquatic systems. Let’s come to together and share results, views and concepts to better understand biogeochemical cycling in boreal and polar regions.

Plant traits extend the range of earth observations to the level of individual organisms, providing a link to ecosystem function and modeling in the context of rapid global changes. However, overcoming the differences in temporal and spatial scales between plant trait data and biogeochemical cycles remains a challenge.

This session will address the role of plant species traits, biodiversity, acclimation and adaptation in the biogeochemical cycles of water, carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. We welcome conceptual, observational, experimental and modeling approaches, and studies from the local to the global scale, including e.g. remote sensing observations.

Fire is a global phenomenon influencing ecosystem functioning, carbon stocks and fluxes, and atmospheric composition, with large impacts on human health, safety and economy. The relative importance of climate, vegetation and humans as drivers of fire activity varies across spatial and temporal scales. Multiscale and interdisciplinary assessments of fire behavior are required to understand global climate-fire feedbacks, as well as regional interactions between vegetation and humans, and fire.
Fire influences the global carbon cycle among others through its carbon emissions and post-fire ecosystem carbon sequestration. In addition, black carbon (also known as pyrogenic carbon, charcoal, soot) is a crucial component in the carbon cycle, yet uncertainties remain regarding sizes, losses and fluxes between land, rivers, oceans and atmosphere.
Remote sensing provides baseline information for all stakeholders involved in monitoring of biomass burning at different scales and for understanding how ecosystems respond to fires. However, there are still large uncertainties in satellite-based active fire, burned area, and fire emissions estimates, in part due to the complexity and diversity of the ecosystems affected. Building on the environmental significance and scientific challenges described above, this session will bring together fire scientists working on biomass burning monitoring and early warning systems. The aim of this session is to improve the understanding of interactions between fire, vegetation, carbon, climate and humans. We invite contributions developing or using remote sensing datasets, in situ observations, charcoal records, laboratory experiments and modeling approaches. We welcome studies that help to improve our understanding of (1) the relative importance of climate, vegetation and humans on fire occurrence across spatial and temporal scales (2) the impacts of fire on vegetation, atmosphere and society, (3) feedbacks between fire, vegetation and climate, and (4) the role of fire in the carbon cycle, with special focus on the transfer of black carbon and other fire markers from terrestrial ecosystems to aquatic environments, and their biogeochemical fate in these environments, (5) innovative use of remote sensing technologies (LIDAR, infrared cameras, drones) for fuel characterization, fire detection and monitoring; (6) algorithms/models applicable to regional-to-global scale fire analyses exploring active fire detection and characterization (e.g., fire radiative power, area affected, combustion phase), burned area mapping, atmospheric emissions and smoke transport, (7) fire product validation and error assessment, (8) analytical tools designed to enhance situational awareness among fire practitioners and early warning systems, addressing specific needs of operational fire behavior modeling.

Invited speakers:
Emilio Chuvieco, University of Alcala
Elena Kukavskaya, Sukachev Institute of Forest, Russian Academy of Sciences

State-of-the-art environmental research infrastructures become increasingly complex and costly, often requiring integration of different equipment, services, and data, as well as extensive international collaboration. Clear and measurable impact of the research Infrastructures is therefore needed in order to justify such investments (from member states and the EU) - whether it is an impact in terms of knowledge, developments in the environmental field of science, new innovative approaches, capacity-building or other socio-economic impacts. Moreover, improving the impact supports the long-term sustainability of the research infrastructures.

This session aims at discussing how to best monitor, interpret, and assess the efficiency and impact of environmental and Earth system research infrastructures. Even more importantly, the session seeks a breadth of contributions, with focus on ways to increase and improve the impact of research infrastructures, not only through the scientific outcomes they produce, but also, for example, through increasing the number of touchpoints with other actors in the society, or awareness of the services they offer- whether this is enhanced by lobbying, direct cooperation with industrial partners, or any other action. Talks on how to enhance the impact through the strategic communications activities are especially welcome.

Ecosystems, their abiotic and biotic compartments as well as their internal processes and interactions can be interpreted as the result of numerous evolutionary steps during system development. Understanding ecosystem development can be regarded, therefore, as crucial for understanding ecosystem functioning. This session will highlight research in this field within two parts.

The first part of this session is dedicated to experimental approaches to disentangle these complex processes and interactions of the Critical Zone. Well-known flagship sites in this sense are, e.g., Biosphere2 in the USA or Hydrohill in China. In addition, post-mining landscapes worldwide offer multiple opportunities for establishing artificial experimental sites for various purposes. Many experimental sites are based on hydrological catchments as integrative landscape units. Other large-scale experiments focus on selected parts of ecosystems which were modified or transplanted. This part of the session tries to create a global overview on large-scale landscape experiments on ecohydrological, pedological, biogeochemical or ecological processes within the Critical Zone.

The second part is related to the co-evolution of spatial patterns of vegetation, soils and landforms. These patterns 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. This part of the session will focus on ecogeomorphological and ecohydrological aspects of landscapes, conservation of soil resources, and the restoration of ecosystem functions.

Invited talks will be given by Dr. Abad Chabbi (Director of Research at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, INRA) on “Challenges, insights and perspectives associated with combining observation and experimentation research infrastructure“. Part two of the session is proud to announce the invited talk of 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) on "Co-evolution of landscape and carbon profile through depth: understanding the interplay between transport and biochemical dynamics".

The Oman Drilling Project (OmanDP; 2016-2018) has recovered 3200 m of diamond drillcore that sample three intervals within the gabbroic lower crust, the crust-mantle transition, partially serpentinised peridotite undergoing active alteration, and the transition from the mantle into the underlying metamorphic sole of the Samail ophiolite in Oman, arguably the best-preserved ophiolite. Most of the boreholes have been geophysically logged and the cores have undergone extensive IODP standard core description onboard the DV Chikyu, supplemented with X-ray CT and high resolution infrared scanning of the entire core. These cores and boreholes can be used to investigate the full spectrum of processes operating during the formation and modification of oceanic crust and shallow mantle. These processes involve mass and energy transfer between all the major components of the Earth system (the mantle, the crust, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere and the biosphere) and occur over a broad range of temperatures, depths and tectonic settings. In this session, we invite abstracts relating to the Oman Drilling Project including core analysis, geophysical logging and microbial studies as well as studies related to the Samail ophiolite and the oceanic lithosphere in general.

In both climate modelling and numerical weather prediction, numerical models of the Earth System are used extensively. For the both the atmosphere and ocean such models consist of a fluid dynamics solver (dynamical core) coupled to physics parameterizations to represent processes that occur below the grid scale (physics). Over time these models have become capable of sophisticated simulations, incorporating such features as multi-scale prediction, structure-preserving discretization and a detailed treatment of physics. New work is constantly being undertaken to improve the accuracy and efficiency of these models, both the dynamical core and the physics.

This session encompasses the development, testing and application of novel numerical techniques for Earth system models, including new discretizations, test cases, advection schemes, vertical discretizations, adaptive multi-scale models, physics-dynamics coupling, global and regional climate and NWP models, structure-preserving discretizations and parameterizations (that are not covered in other sessions).

As the number of palaeoclimate data from glacial, marine, and continental archives is growing continuously, large-scale compilation and cross-comparison of these data is the imperative next phase in paleoclimate research. Large data sets require meticulous database management and new analysis methodologies to unlock their potential for revealing supra-regional and global trends in palaeoclimate conditions. The compilation of large scale datasets from proxy archives faces challenges related to record quality and data stewardship. This requires record screening and formulation of principles for quality check, as well as transparent communication.

This session aims to bring together contributions from paleoclimatic studies benefiting from the existence of such large data sets, e.g., providing a novel perspective on a proxy and the represented climate variables from the local to the global scale. We want to bridge the gap between data generation and modelling studies. In particular, comparing such large proxy-based datasets with climate modelling data is crucial for improving our understanding of palaeoclimate archives (e.g., bias effects and internal processes), to identify signal and noise components and their temporal dynamics, and to gain insight into the quality of model data comparisons.

We encourage submissions on data compilations, cross-comparison and modelling studies utilizing data repositories and databases (e.g., SISAL, PAGES2k, ACER, EPD), including, but not limited to:
-Comparative studies using one or several archives (e.g., including tests of temporal and spatial synchronicity of past regional to global climate changes)
-Proxy system models (and their tuning)
-Model data comparisons (including isotope enabled models or local calibration studies)
-Integrative multi-proxy/multi archive approaches at multiple study sites
-Large scale age model comparisons and record quality assessment studies, including methods aimed at cross validation between different records and variable spatial and temporal scales.

This session aims at bringing together multidisciplinary studies that address the current state of Arctic observing systems, including strategies to improve them in the future. We invite contributions covering atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and terrestrial spheres, or combinations thereof, by use of remote sensing, in situ observation technologies, and modeling. Particular foci are placed on (i) the analysis of strengths, weaknesses, gaps in spatial/temporal coverage, and missing monitoring parameters in existing observation networks and databases, and (ii) studies describing the development and/or deployment of new sensors or observation platforms that extend the existing observing infrastructure with multidisciplinary measurements. This session will be supported by the EU-H2020 project INTAROS, and welcomes contributions from other pan-Arctic networks (e.g. INTERACT, GTN-P, NEON, ICOS, SIOS, IASOA, AOOS), multi-disciplinary campaigns (e.g. ABoVE, NGEE Arctic, Arctic Ocean 2018, RV Polarstern cruises) or databases.

Karst areas with carbonate bedrock comprise approximately 20 % of ice-free land on earth and provide water resources for about 25% of the Earth’s population, as well as under-pinning substantial food production. The critical zone extends from the base of the groundwater system to the top of the vegetation canopy, and comprises a complex system of coupled chemical, biological, physical and geological processes, which together support life at the Earth’s surface. Human impacts including intensive land use, contamination, and consequences of climate change have brought severe changes to the functioning of the critical zone. Owing to the inherent vulnerability of many karst ecosystems to disturbance, these are often particularly severe in karst areas. This has resulted in many emerging challenges for soil science, hydrology and related disciplines to understand how land-management practices impact biogeochemical cycles, and consequently the ability of the karst critical zone to provide future ecosystem services. The special characteristics of the critical zone in karst areas include heterogeneity of aquifer properties, thin soil profiles with a direct soil-rock contact, and unique weathering processes. This results in challenges to biogeochemical cycles studies in karst systems, requiring novel techniques and different approaches to non-karst areas.

Critical zone science is necessarily interdisciplinary. This session strongly encourages work drawing on a range of disciplines that will further our understanding of biogeochemical cycling in the karst critical zone. This will provide the knowledge base on which future management of karst areas is based, in order to secure their ability to provide ecosystem services. Work from all relevant disciplines is encouraged, including soil science, water quality, geology, karst hydrology, ecology, agronomy, and ecosystem services in karstic systems, which may draw from both long-term monitoring and high resolution study of occasional or extreme events. Work may include modelling, experimentation, reviews or a combination of the three.

Accurate and precise atmospheric measurements of greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations reveal the rapid and unceasing rise of global GHG concentrations due to human activity. The resulting increases in global temperatures, sea-level, glacial retreat, and other negative impacts are clear. In response to this evidence, nations, states, and cities, private enterprises and individuals have been accelerating GHG reduction efforts while meeting the needs of global development. The urgency, complexity and economic implications of GHG reductions demand strategic investment in science-based information for planning and tracking emission reduction policies and actions. In response, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Global Atmosphere Watch Program (GAW) and its partners have initiated the development of an Integrated Global Greenhouse Gas Information System (IG3IS). IG3IS combines atmospheric GHG concentration measurements and human-activity data in an inverse modeling framework to help decision-makers take better-informed action to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and pollutants that reduce air quality. This service is based on existing and successful measurement and analysis methods and use-cases for which the scientific and technical skill is proven or emerging.
This session intends to gather presentations from researchers and decision-makers (user-community) on the development, implementation and use of atmospheric measurement-based “top-down” and data-driven “bottom-up” GHG emission inventory estimates, and the combination of both approaches, explicit in space and time, to deliver actionable emissions information at scales where human activity occurs and emission reduction is most effective. This session is part of the EGU General Assembly 2019 30th anniversary celebration of the WMO’s Global Atmosphere Watch Program and its commitment to science-based services.

The European countries are often recognised as the cradle of some of the world’s most important cultural heritage in stone. The cultural, artistic and social importance of stone monuments and lithic works of art evidences the general need to safeguard our praiseworthy cultural heritage. Unfortunately, we are confronted with some problems concerning their conservation, such as the increase of atmospheric contamination, the complex interactions between physical, chemical and biological factors, vandalism, lack of maintenance, and inefficient conservation treatments. This session will focus on the novel approaches that have been recently developed in the field of stone cultural heritage. The new emerging technologies, together with the variety of strategies, methodologies and biotechnological approaches available today show the wide range of possibilities that can be applied to stone heritage conservation. We invite studies devoted to: (i) novel tools for the identification of microorganisms and metabolites responsible for stone biodeterioration; (ii) biomaterials used for the preservation of granite and limestone materials; (iii) natural products from plants or microorganisms as innovative bioactive compounds for controlling biodeterioration; (iv) biotechnological approaches for the preservation of stone-built heritage and removal of sulphates, nitrates or organic substances from stone walls; (v) bioremediation strategies for building restoration. Experimental design setups, laboratory-based assays and field tests are also welcomed.

Tipping elements in the Earth's climate system are continental-scale subsystems that are characterized by a threshold behavior. It has been suggested that these include biosphere components (e.g. the Amazon rainforest and coral reefs), cryosphere components (e.g. the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets) and large-scale atmospheric and oceanic circulations (e.g. the thermohaline circulation, ENSO and Indian summer monsoon). Once operating near a threshold or tipping point, these components can transgress into a qualitatively different state by small external perturbations. The large-scale environmental consequences could impact the livelihoods of millions of people.

In this session, we aim to bring together experts presenting and discussing the state-of-the-art research on tipping elements in the Earth's climate system, both in empirical data and numerical modelling of past, present and future climate. Among other topics, issues to be addressed in this session include critical thresholds for specific tipping elements, typical time scales of tipping, interactions and feedbacks between tipping elements, the potential for tipping cascades as well as environmental and socio-economic impacts of tipping.

Research, especially for early career scientists, starts with the spark of an idea and is then often challenged by empirical or methodological road bumps and seemingly dead ends. A diverse range of challenges face those in earth science research, particularly for early career scientists (ECS). Challenges include (1) access difficulties, whether for field sites, equipment or data, (2) problems of scaling and extrapolation and (3) a lack of methodological understanding or knowledge. In this short course, we will raise engaging discussions, which aim to solve challenges, suggest new research approaches and methods, and encourage networks and possibilities for in-depth discussions amongst early career scientists at international conferences.

This short course will start with 2 minute ‘pop-up’ presentations outlining the questions or challenges submitted by attendees. These pop-ups are followed by chaired group discussions in which short course participants engage to crowd solve the presented challenges. To wrap up the session, solutions and suggestions from each topical group are presented to the whole session in a final discussion. A summary on last years’ crowd solving efforts can be found in the EGU GM blog post https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/gm/2018/04/25/diving-under-the-scientific-iceberg/.

This short course lives by your input: i) by stating a research idea or challenge you would like to share, and ii) by participating in the discussion during the short course. To organize and prepare the discussions, please send a short statement of your idea or challenge related to geomorphic research, and your motivation for solving it (3-4 sentences) to geomorph-problems@geographie.uni-bonn.de, by March 1, 2019. The contributions within the short course are free of charge. If you want to discuss a specific problem, but rather stay anonymous, please let us know. We are all early career scientists and expect a non-hierarchic, respectful and constructive environment for the discussions, which will hopefully go some way to identifying and engaging with problems which face ECS geomorphologists.

Session organizers: Anne Voigtländer, Johannes Buckel, Eleanore Heasley, Felix Nieberding, Liseth Perez, Anna Schoch, Harry Sanders, Richard Mason,...

With the start of the SENTINEL era, a major challenge for users is the efficient extraction of valuable information from an unprecedented amount of data. To provide data products that allow scientists, commercial users and decision makers to efficiently exploit these novel data, new methods are required to estimate land surface information from data retrieval, and to provide novel approaches and data dissemination. In this view, the MULTIPLY platform enables users to synergistically combine different satellite observations (including optical and SAR) together with additional a priori knowledge to provide inferences on land surface quantities (such as leaf area index, soil moisture, radiative fluxes, pigment concentrations, etc.) , as well as provide tools for information extraction and visualisation.
The platform uses state-of-the-art physical models of radiative transfer between the atmosphere and the land surface. The models allow for a coherent interpretion of different observation types. Additional information that constrains the inversion is also included as priors, which include not only expert or database-derived estimates of parameters but also dynamic models. This results in a continuous (in space and time) stream of parameters at high resolution (10s of m) that characterise the land surface, together with an estimate of their uncertainties.

This course is aimed at scientists, who require consistent and gap-free retrieval of land surface parameters, but are confronted with the limitations of current state-of-art approaches. Using a mix of hands-on demonstrators with the MULTIPLY platform, as well as theoretical background information, the course will deal with
• The basic concepts behind radiative transfer models
• The integration of a priori knowledge to land surface parameter retrieval.
• Combining observations and prior information in a Bayesian retrieval scheme
The course will focus on the specific challenges of current state-of-art approaches, and show the potential of MULTIPLY as a beyond-state-of-art framework, and highlight the platform as a useful tool for ecologists, agronomists and climate scientists who require timely information about the state of the land surface.

With the eddy covariance (EC) technique, net fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other trace gases as well as water and energy fluxes can be measured at the ecosystem level. These flux measurements are a main source for understanding biosphere-atmosphere interactions and feedbacks by cross-site analysis, model-data integration, and up-scaling.
However, analysis of the the half-hourly data requires intensive post-processing.
The attendees get teaching and hands-on training in standard post-processing routines of estimating the u*-threshold, gap-filling, flux-partitioning, aggregating results to days, seasons, and years, and error propagation using the open REddyProc R package with a focus on CO2 fluxes.

To help design a better lecture tell us your expectations at the following survey:
https://survey3.gwdg.de/index.php?r=survey/index&sid=19&lang=en

Participants should come with a laptop with installed recent versions of R, RStudio, and REddyProc.
https://www.biogeosciences-discuss.net/bg-2018-56/
https://www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/bgi/index.php/Services/REddyProcWeb

R is probably the most important statistical computing language in academia. With more than 10,000 packages it has been extended in many directions, including a huge support for geospatial data (see https://cran.r-project.org/web/views/Spatial.html and Bivand, Pebesma, and Gómez-Rubio 2013). R’s flexibility and statistical capabilities have made it attractive for people working in Earth, planetary and space sciences and a need for geographic data science.

This course will introduce the audience to R’s geographical capabilities, building on the book Geocomputation with R (https://geocompr.robinlovelace.net/) by the workshop authors (Lovelace, Nowosad, and Muenchow 2018). It will cover four topics and provide a solid foundation for attendees to apply R to a range of geographic data:

1. R’s implementation of the two most important spatial data models - vector (Pebesma 2018) and raster (Hijmans 2017).
2. Spatial data visualization with R.
3. Bridges to dedicated GIS software such as QGIS.
4. Statistical learning with geographic data.

Understanding data models is vital for working with geographic data in R. Maps, based on the data, can display complex information in a beautiful way while allowing for first inferences about spatial relationships and patterns. R has already become a Geographic Information System (GIS) (Bivand, Pebesma, and Gómez-Rubio 2013) - a system for the analysis, manipulation and visualization of geographic data (Longley et al. 2015). However, R was not designed as a GIS, and therefore computing large amounts of geographic data in R can be cumbersome. Even more important, R is missing hundreds of geoalgorithms which are readily available in common Desktop GIS. To deal with these shortcomings R packages have been developed allowing R to interface with GIS software. As an example, we will introduce the RQGIS package (Muenchow, Schratz, and Brenning 2017) for this purpose but also comment on other R-GIS bridges such as RSAGA (Brenning, Bangs, and Becker 2018) and rgrass7 (Bivand 2017). We will use RQGIS to compute terrain attributes (catchment area, catchment slope, SAGA wetness index, etc.) which we will subsequently use to model and predict spatially landslide susceptibility with the help of statistical learning techniques such as GLMs, GAMs and random forests (James et al. 2013). Hence, we show by example how to combine the best of two worlds: the geoprocessing power of a GIS and the (geo-)statistical data science power of R. The short course will consist of a mixture of presentations, live code demos and short interactive exercises if time allows.

Learning objectives
By the end of this workshop, the participants should:

- Know how to handle the two spatial data models (vector and raster) in R.
- Import/export different geographic data formats.
- Know the importance of coordinate reference systems.
- Be able to visualize geographic data in a compelling fashion.
- Know about geospatial software interfaces and how they are integrated with R (GEOS, GDAL, QGIS, GRASS, SAGA).
- Know about the specific challenges when modeling geographic data.

Software requirements
1. Latest version of R and RStudio
2. R packages: sf, raster, RQGIS, RSAGA, spData, tmap, tidyverse, mlr
3. QGIS (including SAGA and GRASS), please follow our installation guide (http://jannes-m.github.io/RQGIS/articles/install_guide.html) to make sure that RQGIS can work with QGIS

References
Bivand, Roger. 2017. Rgrass7: Interface Between GRASS 7 Geographical Information System and R. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=rgrass7.

Bivand, Roger S., Edzer Pebesma, and Virgilio Gómez-Rubio. 2013. Applied Spatial Data Analysis with R. 2nd ed. New York: Springer.

Brenning, Alexander, Donovan Bangs, and Marc Becker. 2018. RSAGA: SAGA Geoprocessing and Terrain Analysis. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=RSAGA.

Hijmans, Robert J. 2017. Raster: Geographic Data Analysis and Modeling. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=raster.

James, Gareth, Daniela Witten, Trevor Hastie, and Robert Tibshirani, eds. 2013. An Introduction to Statistical Learning: With Applications in R. Springer Texts in Statistics 103. New York: Springer.

Longley, Paul, Michael Goodchild, David Maguire, and David Rhind. 2015. Geographic Information Science & Systems. Fourth edition. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Lovelace, Robin, Jakub Nowosad, and Jannes Muenchow. 2018. Geocomputation with R. The R Series. CRC Press.

Muenchow, Jannes, Patrick Schratz, and Alexander Brenning. 2017. “RQGIS: Integrating R with QGIS for Statistical Geocomputing.” The R Journal 9 (2): 409–28.

Pebesma, Edzer. 2018. “Simple Features for R: Standardized Support for Spatial Vector Data.” The R Journal. https://journal.r-project.org/archive/2018/RJ-2018-009/index.html.

In times of climate change, current debates about carbon dynamics make waves in both the science and policy community. Several international policy frameworks* spearhead global efforts to streamline state governments, industry, and civil society into agreements for a sustainable development while mitigating climate change. The contribution of science to this process is critical to better prepare, implement, and measure the ambitious goals. Geoscientists from all fields are welcome to join this debate at the science-policy interface.

We will start with a scientific introduction on a topic of increasing focus in the policy-sphere; land and soil carbon dynamics, highlighting recent findings on carbon fluxes, whether it be source or sink. After discussing how these relate with policy guidelines, from our second speaker we will learn how scientific findings enter the policy arena, how policy organizations work, and why targeted-reports are crucially important for policy-makers. Our third speaker will present on how policies are turned into agreements at national or regional scales. To conclude, in an open discussion, the keynote speakers and audience will have the opportunity to discuss how the policy frameworks can boost science, which burning research needs are missing out, and how to explore career opportunities, especially for early career scientists. During the discussion, the expertise of the audience will be crowdsourced in an exercise on how to get involved and integrate your research ideas into policy-making decisions.

* like the Sustainable Development Goals, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the 4 per 1000 Initiative and others

The assessment of forest vulnerability and resilience in the sight of global ecological, social and economic changes is a relevant issue. In recent decades, forest vulnerability is rapidly increasing worldwide and forecasting changes in tree health is becoming a challenge. Forest dieback episodes have been recorded in all biomes affecting different tree and shrub species. These dieback cases are revealing the high vulnerability of some species, particularly conifers, manifested as a loss in tree vigour, growth decline and sometimes tree death. Tree mortality commonly involves multiple, interacting factors, ranging from drought to insect pests and diseases, often making the determination of a single cause unrealistic. The need of understanding and predicting changes in tree mortality, growth and recruitment in response to dieback is essential to improve vegetation and C cycle models. Furthermore how adaptive forest management may be applied to improve the resistence and resiliance of forest stands subjected to dieback and mortality events needs to be better understood.
There is a common agreement on the key role of interdisciplinary research and the combined use of complementary tools to improve the monitoring and projection of forest vulnerability and dieback.
This session focuses on efforts to improve our understanding on: i) causes and mechanisms related to forest vulnerability and dieback; ii) potential changes in tree species composition, forest structure and extent of dieback under current and future climate change scenarios; iii) evaluation of which functional anatomical traits and hydraulic properties make some tree species or stands and tree populations more prone to environmental-induced dieback and decline IV) assesment of the role and interaction of insect disease and other abiotic factors on mortality; v) how trees die from drought and how to quantitatively assess tree mortality rates and the magnitude of tree mortality episodes associated to climate change events.
Contributions will focus on an integrated multi-scale (from cells to plant communities, ecosystems and global approaches), multi-temporal (from xylogenesis to long-term forecasting) and interdisciplinary (microscopy and individual Plant physiology to remote) frameworks. Contributions will focus also on modelling the mechanisms or relationships that use climate variability and trends as main drivers for forest planning and management.

Natural disturbances are a primary driver of forest dynamics, thus shaping their composition and structure, and determining succession trajectories. Humans have always interacted with natural disturbances, and are in turn affected by the hazards posed by these events.
With the multitude of functions and services simultaneously and increasingly required from forest ecosystems, it is crucial to improve our understanding of the impact of natural disturbances on forests, also in light of the potential alterations introduced by different global change drivers, mostly due to anthropogenic activities.
Further attention is required to the many ways in which multiple disturbances (of biotic, abiotic and anthropogenic origin) interact with each other, thereby modifying the likelihood of occurrence and the effects of one another.
Despite an increasing awareness of the fundamental ecological role of natural disturbances, forest management still requires solid scientific input on how to increase the resistance and resilience of forests, and manage naturally disturbed landscapes to promote forest regeneration.
This complex situation calls for multi-scale, multi temporal, and multidisciplinary studies, taking advantage of field (in-situ) and remote sensing approaches, in order to capture the large heterogeneity and variability of the patterns and processes involved. In this session, we invite contributions from all fields in order to promote knowledge on disturbance ecology and to implement sustainable forest management.

The Amazon forest is the world’s largest intact forest landscape. Due to its large biodiversity, carbon storage capacity, and role in the hydrological cycle, it is an extraordinary interdisciplinary natural laboratory of global significance. In the Amazon rain forest biome, it is possible to study atmospheric composition and processes, biogeochemical cycling and energy fluxes at the geo-, bio-, atmosphere interface under near-pristine conditions for a part of the year, and under anthropogenic disturbance of varying intensity the rest of the year. Understanding its current functioning at process up to biome level is elemental for predicting its response upon changing climate and land use, and the impact this will have on global scale.

This session aims at bringing together scientists who investigate the functioning of the Amazon and comparable intact forest landscapes across spatial and temporal scales by means of remote and in-situ observational, modeling, and theoretical studies. Particularly welcome are also presentations of novel, interdisciplinary approaches and techniques that bear the potential of paving the way for a paradigm shift.

Forest ecosystems are changing under climate change, and forests in mountain regions could be particularly sensitive to those changes. This poses substantial challenges to forest and landscape management, as mountain forests provide important ecosystem functions and services, such as water purification and protection from natural hazards. Yet, our understanding of how mountain forests might be impacted from climate change is still patchy. The aim of the session consequently is to compile current knowledge on climate change impacts on mountain forests ecosystems across the globe. Mountain forests are defined in a broad sense, covering all biomes from the tropics to the boreal zone. Potential topics might include, but are not limited to, changing disturbance regimes, impacts on ecosystem functions and services, changing structure and growth, and effects of human land use and changing societal demands on mountain forests. We hope to gather a broad transect of mountain forests ecosystems, synthesizing current challenges and future trends of mountain forest research.

Higher temperature and altered precipitation regimes will affect the exchange of energy, carbon, water and nutrients between plants and the environment. Both, the gradual increase in temperature as well as the increased frequency of extreme events such as hot droughts will have strong impact on plants and terrestrial ecosystem functioning. To persist and thrive under projected climate conditions, plants will need to undergo rapid adjustments in their functions, including developmental, morphological and physiological shifts. Although clearly acknowledged, the hydrological and biogeochemical consequences of climate change impacts, plants acclimation responses and their potential role in increasing plants resistance to extreme climate events are not yet fully understood.

In this session, we would like to bring together speakers from different ecoregions that are currently conducting research on forest responses to drought and warming. We invite contributions in tree physiology, forest ecology, hydrological and biogeochemical processes that span a range of scales going from local to global studies. Cross-disciplinary approaches are particularly encouraged. Contributions may address any geographic area of the world from the cellular to the landscape level and use in-situ manipulative experiments, field observations, remote-sensing and modelling approaches. With this session, we want to encourage discussion between plant physiologists, forest ecologists, soil biogeochemists, ecosystem scientists and large-scale modelers in the context of how shifts in forest functions and structures under warming and drying conditions could inform us on the future of these ecosystems under projected climate.

Exchange of important greenhouse gases (GHGs) methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) in forest ecosystems has traditionally focused on gas flux measurements between the soil and the atmosphere only. Soils act as substantial sources and sinks of both gases. However, the processes underlying the production and consumption of these gases are still not fully known and their understanding is a pre-supposition for improving the estimations of the gas fluxes within the soil-plant-atmosphere system. Over the last years, it has become evident that trees may play an important, and until recently overlooked, role in the net exchange of these GHGs in forests. Trees can contribute to ecosystem exchange by uptake and transport of soil-produced CH4 and N2O to the atmosphere, in-situ production (and perhaps consumption?) of both gases in plant tissues, and alternation of carbon- and nitrogen-turn-over in adjacent soil. However, the contribution of these individual processes to the net ecosystem GHGs exchange is still unclear and seems to depend on tree species, forest ecosystem type, environmental parameters and seasonal dynamics. Wetland tree species may be important CH4 sources, whereas some upland tree species are even known to be sinks for CH4. High N2O emissions have been particularly detected from trees grown under increased N2O concentrations in soils. The question thus remains whether mature trees exchange N2O with the atmosphere under low soil N2O concentration. First studies detected even N2O uptake by upland trees.
This session seeks to bring together scientists working on the exchange of CH4 and N2O in forest ecosystems at any relevant scale, and from the full climatic and hydrological forest range. We therefore welcome contributions on microbial processes in soils, plant tissues and microtopographic forms; measurements of soil gases and modelling of gas transport, incl. innovative approaches for soil gas sampling; gas transport processes in soils and trees incl. methodological aspects (application of stable/radioactive isotopes); flux measurements on the forest floor/soil, on cryptogams, on tree stems and at the leaf and canopy level; micrometeorological measurements using flux towers, and satellite, inverse and numerical modelling studies that seek to integrate our understanding of CH4 and N2O exchange in soils, trees and forest ecosystems. To understand the complexity of gas turn-over and transport processes in soils and trees in its entirety, related studies on other important gases as carbon dioxide (CO2), and biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) and nitrous acid (HONO), which are important precursors of atmospheric chemistry, will be also included in the session.

Key-note speaker: Prof. Dr. Ülo Mander, University of Tartu, Estonia


The following sessions were merged into this session:
BG2.8 Forests and the CH4 and N2O cycles
BG2.51 Transport processes of trace gases in soils: measurements, modelling and ecological implications

Public information:
To have some time together after our session we reserved a table at the Brandauers Bierbögen at 19:30 on Thursday 11.04 to meet, chat and discuss ideas and life, and have something to eat and drink.

Plant ecosystems exchange reactive trace gases, such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), ozone, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and particles. While some of these compounds are anthropogenically produced, many are biotic in origin and are emitted in-situ or produced from rapid photochemistry in the canopy. The oxidation products include low-volatility organic compounds that readily partition to the aerosol phase, particularly in the presence of anthropogenic pollutants such as ammonium, nitrate and sulphate. In addition to being strong sources, soil and leaves represent major sinks of these reaction products, with deposition to the surface also as a function of surface wetness and uptake into the leaf via the stomata. The canopy region thus represents a dynamic and rapidly changing environment in which a myriad biological, chemical and physical processes occur over very short time and spatial scales. Advanced techniques of flux measurements provide good knowledge of the overall net fluxes of these compounds above canopies, while additional in-canopy measurements enable more detailed study and understanding of the individual processes and reactions driving these fluxes. These rapidly advancing measurements can support parametrization of models for a mechanistic understanding of in-canopy dynamics of deposition and emission of these reactive gases, which can in turn allow fuller interpretation of in-situ measurements and inform the design of field experiments to test specific hypotheses. This session, sponsored by ILEAPS (Integrated Land Ecosystem Atmosphere Process Study), encourages the submission of contributions based on in-situ measurements and/or modeling that improve our understanding of biosphere-atmosphere exchange of reactive gases and aerosols and in-canopy processes.

Tropical ecosystems play an important role for the regional and global climate system through the exchange of greenhouse gases (GHG), water and energy and provide important ecosystem services that we as humans depend on, such as wood, foods, and biodiversity. Historic and recent human activities have, however, resulted in intensive transformation of tropical ecosystems impacting on the cycling of nutrients, carbon, water, and energy.

Here we invite contributions that provide insights on how land-use and land-use change influences biogeochemical cycles and ecohydrology in tropical ecosystems at the plot, landscape, and continental scale. Examples include nitrogen and carbon cycles in soil and vegetation, the exchange of GHG between soil and atmosphere as well as ecosystem and atmosphere, changes in the energy balance, impacts on the water cycle, scaling issues from plots to country to continent; and the influence of management activities (i.e. fertilization, drainage, etc.) on GHG fluxes.

The session covers forests, but also managed land-use systems such as agriculture, pastures or oil palm plantations. Experimental studies (chamber or eddy covariance flux measurements, stable isotopes, sap flux), inventories, as well as remote sensing or modelling studies are welcomed.

The terrestrial vegetation carbon balance is controlled not just by photosynthesis, but by respiration, carbon allocation, turnover (comprising litterfall, background mortality and disturbances) and wider vegetation dynamics. However, these processes have proved extremely challenging to observe and quantify at large scales and over long time periods. Existing large-scale empirical products of vegetation carbon fluxes and stocks have large uncertainties and/or data gaps. Furthermore, the observed changes in vegetation properties are often the result of a number of interacting processes and can be driven by changes in CO2, climate, natural disturbances or human activities. Thus, our current understanding of the environmental controls on vegetation dynamics and properties, and in turn their impact on carbon stocks in biomass and soils, is limited and the behaviour of large-scale vegetation models remains underconstrained. This gives rise to high uncertainty as to whether terrestrial vegetation will continue to act as a carbon sink under future environmental changes, or whether increases in autotrophic respiration or carbon turnover, e.g. through accelerated background tree mortality or by more frequent and more severe disturbance events (e.g. drought, fire, insect epidemics), will counteract this negative feedback to climate change. We welcome contributions that make use of observational approaches, vegetation models, or model-data integration techniques to advance understanding of the effects of environmental change on vegetation dynamics and carbon stocks and fluxes at local, regional or global scales and/or at long time scales.
Keynote: Prof Shaun Quegan, University of Sheffield.

Global terrestrial carbon and water budgets are changing with an unprecedented rate. Observations and simulations of the terrestrial carbon and water budget are fundamental to forecasting the biosphere-atmosphere interaction under a changing climate. Although in reality, physical and physiological processes underlying carbon and water fluxes occur over a continuum of scales, most research efforts address a single scale. Therefore, the estimated change systematically depends on the scale of observation and is a significant contributor to the output uncertainties. This, along with the ever-increasing variety of observation methods, simulation and computation techniques, pose a challenge to inform process understanding by observations that are captured at multiple spatial and temporal scales.
In this session, we aim to review challenges associated with scaling processes of carbon and water fluxes from the leaf to the ecosystem, and eventually global scale. More specifically, we call for recent efforts in the systematic quantification of uncertainties associated with different scales in modelling exercises, transferability between measurement captured at the leaf (e.g. gas exchange), tree (e.g. sap flux, dendrometers) to ecosystem level (eddy covariance towers, UAVs, aircrafts and satellites), and modelling studies, which help in bridging observational datasets from multiple temporal and spatial scales.

Despite more than 100 years of research into the biochemistry and ecology of microbial N transformations, our understanding of how plants, microbiota and their physical environment shape the N cycle remains fragmentary. At the same time, we are in the midst of a global experiment, augmenting the N cycle to unprecedented levels. Relevant current research addresses, but is not limited to, N transformation processes connecting stable and reactive pools in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, the balance between N retaining and dissipating processes, transport and fate of reactive N in the environment and emission and uptake of gaseous N.
This session is open for contributions advancing our understanding of N-transformation processes on all scales, ranging from the micro-site to the watershed. Both field and laboratory studies are welcome. We are particularly interested in contributions reflecting recent methodological advancements in measuring (or inferring) N-transformation rates and their underlying biotic and abiotic components. Studies addressing spatiotemporal variabilities (“hot spots” and “hot moments”) and modeling approaches aiming to overcome variability and scale boarders are highly welcome.

Human activities are altering a range of environmental conditions, including atmospheric CO2 concentration, climate, and nutrient inputs. However, understanding and predicting their combined effect on ecosystem structure and functioning and biogeochemical cycles is challenging. Divergent future projections of terrestrial ecosystem models reflect open questions about fundamental processes and missing observational constraints. Models are routinely tested and calibrated against data from ecosystem flux measurements, remote sensing, atmospheric inversions and ecosystem inventories. While these constrain the current mean state of the terrestrial biosphere, they provide limited information on the sensitivity of ecophysiological, biogeochemical, and hydrological processes to environmental changes. Observational and ecosystem manipulation studies (e.g., Free-Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE), nutrient addition or warming experiments) can provide unique insights and inform model development and evaluation.

This session focuses on how ecosystem processes respond to changes in CO2 concentration, atmospheric conditions, water and nutrient availability. It aims at fostering the interaction between experimental and modelling communities by advancing the use of observational and experimental data for model evaluation and calibration. We encourage contributions from syntheses of multiple experiments, model intercomparisons and evaluations against ecosystem manipulation experiments, pre-experimental modelling, or the use of observations from "natural experiments". Contributions may span a range of scales and scopes, including plant ecophysiology, soil organic matter dynamics, soil microbial activity, nutrient cycling, plant-soil interactions, or ecosystem dynamics.

From pole to pole, peatlands contain up to 30% of the world’s soil carbon pool, illustrating their role in the global carbon cycle. Currently peatlands are under various pressures such as changing climate, land-use or nutrient loading with unknown consequences for their functioning as carbon sinks and stores and the uptake or release of the greenhouse gasses carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Simultaneously, increasing amount of restoration activities, aiming to return peatlands back to their original state are ongoing. It is, however, not clear how the carbon reservoir will react to these pressures and how resilient these ecosystems are. This session will focus on the observed or predicted changes on the biogeochemistry at peatlands, caused by climate change, nutrient loading or land-use. We invite studies concentrating, for example, on the effects of climate change on GHG flux or nutrient dynamics on pristine and managed peatlands, impact of drainage or restoration and subsequent vegetation succession on biogeochemistry, atmosphere-biosphere interaction, or studies on carbon stock changes demonstrating the impact of land-use or climate change. Experimental and modelling studies of both high- and low latitude peatlands are welcomed.

Invited speakers:
Klaus-Holger Knorr, Professor, University of Münster, Germany
Franziska Koebsch, Dr., Rostock Universität, Germany
Michael Waddington, Professor, McMaster University, Canada
Minna Väliranta, Dr, University of Helsinki, Finland

Terrestrial ecosystems can be either greenhouse gas (GHG) sources or sinks. Ecosystem management in i.e. forests, croplands, grassland, mires, rangelands amongst others largely affect the net GHG exchange, encouraging both sources and sinks, or even leading to changes in the sign of the net GHG budget. With this session we aim at understanding how management activities in terrestrial ecosystems modify GHG exchanges of the three major GHGs: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). We are particularly looking for in-situ measurements (both short and long-term) on either a single GHG, or studies that jointly assess the three of them. Direct comparison studies of managed vs. unmanaged systems are further encouraged. We further invite contributions that aim at combining measurements with modeling approaches, and/or those that are trying to disentangle how management practices modify the processes responsible for GHG production and consumption at the soil, plant or ecosystem level. As an output if this session we anticipate, (1) learning about individual approaches currently being used to better understand the effects of management activities on GHG budgets, and (2) to consolidate information and develop standardized guidelines for existing and future studies allowing for direct comparison of individual results.

The Critical Zone comprises the Earth's permeable near-surface layer from the top of the canopy to the bottom of the groundwater(see also: criticalzone.org/national/research/the-critical-zone-1national). It is the Zone where hydrosphere, atmosphere, pedosphere and geosphere interact with the biosphere. This fragile skin of the Earth, which supports the life and survival of humans maintaining food production and drinking water quality, is endangered by threats like climate change and land use change.

This multidisciplinary session will bring together scientists from all disciplines that contribute to our understanding of the Critical Zone from the molecular to the global scale and from fast to slow processes. We invite empirical and theoretical studies, as well as presentation of novel methods, aiming to reveal the processes connecting surface and subsurface und assessing the depth of the surface influence and potential feedbacks.

Denudation, including both chemical and mechanical processes, is of high relevance for Earth surface and landscape development and the transfers of solutes, nutrients and sediments from slope and headwater systems through the main stem of drainage basin systems to ocean basins. Denudational slope and fluvial processes are controlled by a range of environmental drivers and can be significantly affected by man-made activities. Only if we have a better quantitative knowledge of drivers, mechanisms and rates of Holocene to contemporary denudational processes across a range of different climatic environments, an improved assessment of the possible effects of global environmental changes (e.g., higher frequencies of extreme rainfall events, accelerated permafrost thawing, rapid glacier retreat), anthropogenic impacts and other disturbances (e.g., land use, fires, earthquakes) on denudation can be achieved.

This session combines contributions on denudational hillslope and fluvial processes, sedimentary budgets and landscape responses to environmental changes in different morphoclimates, including both undisturbed and anthropogenically modified landscapes. The presented studies apply a diverse set of tools and data analyses, including up to date field measurements and monitoring techniques, remotely sensed/GIS-based analyses, modelling, geochemical and fingerprinting measurements and techniques, dendrochronological approaches, and cosmogenic radionuclide dating.

This session is organized by the I.A.G./A.I.G. Working Group on Denudation and Environmental Changes in Different Morphoclimatic Zones (DENUCHANGE).

Analysing the geomorphic response to environmental change is crucial to improve the understanding, interpretation and prediction of surface process activity. Environmental drivers such as land cover and land use change, climate variability and tectonic activity are mutable in space and time, which renders the analysis of their impact on Earth surface dynamics anything but trivial. In turn, geomorphic processes have a strong impact on both natural ecosystems and artificially transformed land surfaces, with consequences ranging from increasing environmental diversity to economic damage.
This session aims to cluster latest advances in land surface research that address interrelationships between land cover dynamics, climate, evolving topography and geomorphic processes. Herein, the focus is set on the analysis, modelling and prediction of land surface processes that are linked to:
1) Natural and anthropogenic land cover dynamics, including land use changes, management practices, cultivation of field crops or grassland management, soil reinforcement of different vegetation types and parameterisation of prediction models.
2) Climate variability on a variety of spatial and temporal scales, from freeze-thaw cycles, monsoonal precipitation and extreme climatic events to Plio-Pleistocene glacial cycles and Late-Pleistocene to Holocene climatic changes.
Studies are welcome that pay heed on the geomorphic response to changes in land cover or climate, as well as the resulting feedbacks between land cover, climate and Earth surface dynamics over different temporal and spatial scales.

Soil biogeochemical data-modeling integration focuses on:
- soil hydrology and its links with soil respiration and biogeochemistry
- biogeochemical processes studied in feedbacks with soil structure and by high-resolution imaging
- biogeochemical models development and up-scaling issues

Water is a critical driver for soil biogeochemical processes. Hydrologic connections within the soil pore network facilitate flow and transport that enable microbial processing of soil organic materials, and other redox-associated biogeochemical processes. As extreme events such as droughts and storms increase in frequency, a focused understanding of the coupling between water, microorganisms, and biogeochemistry is needed to improve both empirical understanding and simulation models of C cycling processes at all scales. Dormant microorganisms may revive, or functional shifts in microbial activities may occur, that can be related to changing hydrologic states. Studies that couple hydrology to soil structure, microbial C cycling and biogeochemistry are welcome, as are those that emphasize ‘omics-based diagnostics or metrics for monitoring and predicting soil microbial community activities and biodiversity in response to hydrologic changes.

Analytical methods are the foundation of every scientific discipline. Therefore have they very important role in soil science and in all other related disciplines. From the choice of analytical method there depends the accuracy of researches and quality of the findings, and according to this the novelty and usefulness for society. Today we can see the usage of a very wide spectrum of methods and techniques in soil science from quite simple classical methods up to high-precision methods based on high-tech instruments. The wise usage of analytical methods and techniques allows the investigation of the processes and mechanisms in soils and to assess the status of the environment. Unfortunately, the importance of their utilisation in soil analysis is often underestimated. The main purpose of our session is to emphasize the importance of the analytical methods used to achieve the results in soil research.

The aim of this session is to present the usage of different laboratory methods and techniques in soil research and give possibility for researchers to exchange their experiences. The special goal of this session will be to promote a wider use of innovative analytical methods and hyphenated instrumental techniques for separation and determination of chemical and biochemical compounds of both known and unknown structures in mineral and organic soils, sediments, substrates and composts. Modern analytical methods and hyphenated techniques can be utilized for the investigation of the processes and mechanisms in soils like formation, transformation, and conversion.
The session is an opportunity to present the works describing the usage of wide range of equipment, from smartphones to MS in the analysis of soils. The session is not limited to these techniques or methods. Works describing the methods of soil physical analysis are accepted also. The studies connected with methodology of soil chemical analysis and particularly soil organic matter are welcome.

Soil structure, function and ecosystem services are discussed within each soil discipline: biology, chemistry and physics and it is recognised that each one of these soil disciplines have great importance in determining the overall soil health and characteristics. Moreover, there is an interrelationship between soil biota and the chemical and physical properties of the soil. For example, soil chemical composition can influence the survival of organisms in the soil and in return, soil organisms may change soil pH, aggregate stability and rate of organic matter decomposition. Healthy, bio-diverse, fertile soil that is rich in nutrients and elements required for food security and proper human nutrition can lead to personal physical fitness as well as social wellbeing for both the individual and broader society. Despite sessions and discussions within each soil discipline, there is very little talk between disciplines and one of the main reasons is the difficulties of the members of one discipline to understand the jargon used by another.
The aim of this session is to bring experts and ECSs from the different soil disciplines to present on soil structure, function and ecosystem services where the only rule is that jargon is not allowed! Our main objective is to facilitate discussion and feed soil information between the biology, chemistry and physics disciplines.
We have dedicated our session to the work of Professor Lily Pereg who was the initiator of this session and President of Soil System Sciences Division at EGU until she died tragically and unexpectedly earlier this year.

The soil environment hosts a vast array of interfaces, ranging from those between microbes and aggregates, bulk soils and roots, to the interactions of soils with the bedrock and atmosphere. A range of physical, biological and chemical processes occur at these interfaces across different spatial and temporal scales, sustaining a wealth of ecosystem functions and services.

Soil systems are therefore dynamic environments. The behaviour and response of these complex systems to short-term perturbation and long-term environmental change pose fascinating challenges for soil scientists. Many of the major drivers of environmental change are anthropic in origin, including accelerated climatic change and shifts in land use and management. To ensure soils continue to provide valuable functions and services it is vitally important that we study the wide variety of soil interfaces and understand how the processes occurring across them may respond to current and potential future environmental change scenarios.

In this session we hope to bring together researchers at all career stages from different sub-disciplines of soil science to discuss these interactions and how these are affected by broader changes within the environment. Soil systems encompass an exceptional array of biogeochemical components; as such we welcome studies from a wide range of researchers using empirical or modelling-based approaches. We especially encourage contributions which present research encompassing different components of the soil system and the interactions between soil processes and the wider environment.

Pre-anthropogenic evolution of biosphere based on mechanisms of struggle for life created dynamic stability of the Earth ecosystems comprised of species with maximum matching to all the biogeochemical niches. Intellect specific of only one species changed biosphere to support civilizations but at the same time interfered natural processes and transformed the state of the organized natural biogeochemical cycles. As a result, soil as the main basis of nutrients and biomass production is subjected to physical and chemical degradation and needs reclamation. To survive and develop as a species, Man should escape short-term decisions and use his knowledge and scientifically based approaches to find the ways for stable existence in changeable noosphere.
The main idea of the present session is to discuss the problem of optimization of eco-geochemical state of anthropized soil to improve the quality of agricultural and forestry production and, finally, human health in conditions of inevitable man-made contamination.
We invite specialists in soil science and all stakeholders to:
1) present their ideas and experience in assessment of the ecological and health risk due to soil contamination in their regions, countries and localities;
2) discuss how we should evaluate soil contamination in conditions of: a) natural nutrients deficiency; b) soil over-fertilization; soil pollution;
3) clear up what levels of elements concentration may be treated as pollution and demonstrate theoretical approaches and modern technologies that may be considered optimum in reclamation of technogenically transformed soils to improve their ecological quality and to contribute to human health.

Agriculture is an important sector of any economy of the world. Agriculture productions are highly dependent on the climate change and variability. Changes in hydro-meteorological variables can influence crop yield and productivity at many places. Further, climate change can influence nutrient levels, soil moisture, water availability and other terrestrial parameters related to the agricultural productivity. Changes in the frequency and severity of droughts and floods could pose challenges for farmers and ranchers and threaten food safety. Further, changes in climate can influence meteorological conditions and thus can influence the crop growth pattern. It may also influence irrigation scheduling and water demand of the crops. The effects of climate change also need to be considered along with other evolving factors that affect agricultural production, such as changes in farming practices and technology.

The purpose of the proposed session is to gather scientific researchers related to this topic aiming to highlight ongoing researches and new applications in the field of climate change and agriculture. In this framework, original works concerned with the development or exploitation of advanced techniques for understanding the impact of climate change on agriculture will be invited.

The conveners of this session will encourage both applied and theoretical research in this area.

The continuum approach is a classical framework to describe and understand the soil—water dynamics and the soil effective—stress state in unsaturated soils. This approach is greatly dependent on the soil—water constitutive laws, viz soil—water retention curve, relative hydraulic conductivity, and those derived by these two principal ones. They link the real soil and its model. Advancements along their development and the comprehension of their role stand at the intersection of experimental measurements, mathematical representation and modelling, numerical solutions, theoretical understandings and practical applications. The growing possibility of monitoring soil moisture with rather simple tools has allowed to perform many field experiments devoted to understand the links between environmental variables and soil moisture. Also, climate change research has boosted this field of knowledge. Many terrestrial critical zone observatories have been installed, therefore new information both at the local and at the catchment scale is now available. Many open issues still exist in understanding the role of soil moisture in the environment, in combination with other factors such as soil and air temperature, air humidity, carbon and nitrogen availability, etc. Also, it is necessary the study of the structure of time and spatial variability of soil moisture itself, for example to combine the different scales of measurements. Usually soil moisture is measured at the local scale, but hydrogeophysics allows to have larger scale measurements and micrometeorological tools such as eddy covariance provide even larger scale estimation of gas and energy fluxes. The cosmic ray have increasing applications and the remote sensing images are powerful tools, therefore interesting issues regard the spatial upscaling, and the sampling frequency.

We invite contributions related to the understanding of the soil--water constitutive laws and to soil moisture monitoring, both finalised to understand the effects of its time and spatial variability, and to study soil moisture itself.

Scientists working both in the biogeosciences, and in soil sciences field are encouraged to participate, for example with study related to the implications of soil moisture on carbon and nitrogen dynamics, as well as on root and plant growth. The growing possibility of monitoring soil moisture with rather simple tools has allowed to perform many field experiments devoted to understand the links between environmental variables and soil moisture. Also, climate change research has boosted this field of knowledge. Many terrestrial critical zone observatories have been installed, therefore new information both at the local and at the catchment scale is now available.

Tree rings are a key terrestrial archive providing insight into past climate conditions at annual and intra-annual resolution and from local to hemispheric scales. Tree ring proxies are also important indicators of plant physiological responses to changing environments and of long-term ecological processes. In this broad context we welcome contributions using one or more of the following approaches to either study the impact of environmental change on growth and physiology of trees and forest ecosystems or to assess and reconstruct past environmental change: (i) traditional dendrochronological methods including studies based on tree ring width and density, (ii) stable isotopes in tree rings and related plant compounds, (iii) dendrochemistry, (iv) quantitative wood anatomy, (v) sap flow, dendrometer and related monitoring data analyses, and (vi) mechanistic modelling, all at different temporal and spatial scales.

Dissolved and particulate organic carbon (DOM, POM) are key components of the global C cycle and important as potential sources of CO2, and for the long-term preservation of carbon stabilized in subsoils and sediments. DOM and POM are key sources of energy for microbial metabolism within terrestrial ecosystems, the aquatic continuum, and ultimately the ocean. Despite recent evidence showing this lateral transport of carbon is linked to anthropogenic perturbations, efforts to integrate DOM and POM fluxes across the terrestrial-aquatic continuum are just emerging. A comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of DOM and POM in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems remains challenging due to complex interactions of biogeochemical and hydrological processes at different scales, i.e. from the molecular to the landscape scale.
This session aims to improve our understanding of organic matter processing at the interface of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. We solicit contributions dealing with amounts, composition, reactivity and fate of DOM and POM and its constituents (i.e. C, N, P, S) in soils, lakes, rivers and the coastal ocean as well as the impact of land use change and climatic change on these processes. For example, it is important to recognize the key role of peatlands as sources of organic matter for many streams and rivers as well as soil erosion induced lateral fluxes of sediment and carbon at the catchment scale when assessing C dynamics across the terrestrial-aquatic continuum. Therefore, we aim to bring together scientists from various backgrounds, but all devoted to the study of dissolved and/or particulate organic matter using a broad spectrum of methodological approaches (e.g. molecular, spectroscopic, isotopic, 14C, other tracers, and modeling).

Globally, 10–20% of peatlands have been drained for agriculture or forestry, and they emit close to 5% of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions. There are countries in Europe that have more than 60% of their agricultural emissions originating from cultivated organic soils, and the fate of South-East Asian peatlands is of global concern. Drainage causes losses of specialized species and further ecosystem services such as nutrient retention. However, most peatland-rich countries address peatlands poorly in national emission reporting and climate change mitigation strategies.
Innovative mitigation measures that sustain economically viable biomass production while reducing negative environmental impacts including greenhouse gas emissions, fire risk and supporting ecosystem services of organic soils are currently vigorously studied. Management measures include, but are not limited to, productive use of wet peatlands (“paludiculture”), improved water management in conventional agriculture and innovative approaches in conservation-focused rewetting projects. Production systems where peatland water table is 40 cm below the surface or higher, can generate food (e.g. fish, berries, mushrooms), feed (e.g. fodder for livestock), fiber (for construction, furniture) and fuel, and raw materials for chemical industry. How to implement these innovations in practice and integrate them into national GHG inventories remains a challenge.
We invite studies addressing peat-preserving management practices on organic soils as well as their implementation into GHG inventories. Work on all spatial scales from the laboratory to the national level addressing biogeochemical as well as biological aspects and both experimental and modelling studies are welcome. Especially research on development of traditional systems with details on commodities with viable value chains and income generation would be of interest. Furthermore, we invite contributions that address policy coherence and identify policy instruments for initiating and implementing new management practices on organic soils.
This session is organized as a joined effort of Global Research Alliance “Peatland Management” working group, Global Peatlands Initiative, Greifswald Mire Center, Thünen Institute and RePeat (REstoration and prognosis of PEAT formation in fens - linking diversity in plant functional traits to soil biological and biogeochemical processes 2016-2019; BiodiVErSA) and PeatWise (Wise use of drained peatlands in a bio-based economy: development of improved assessment practices and sustainable techniques for mitigation of greenhouse gases 2017-2020; FACCE ERA-GAS) – projects.

Managed agricultural ecosystems (grassland and cropland) are an important source and/or sink for greenhouse gases (GHG) as well as reactive trace gases. Due to the simultaneous influence of management activities (e.g. fertilizer application, harvest, grazing) and various environmental drivers, the flux patterns are often complex and difficult to attribute to individual drivers. Management related mitigation options may result in trade-offs between different GHG (CO2, CH4, N2O) or between emission of GHG and reactive gases like NH3.
The session addresses experimentalists and modelers working on fluxes and exchange processes on plot, field, landscape, and regional scale. It is open to a wide range of studies including the development and application of new devices, methods, and model approaches as well as field observations and process studies.
Particularly welcome are studies on the full carbon, nitrogen or GHG budgets, as well as studies comparing GHG and reactive gas exchange. We also encourage contributions about N2O, NH3 and NO emission factors.

Gross photosynthetic CO2 uptake is the single largest component of the global carbon cycle and a crucial variable for monitoring and understanding global biogeochemical cycles and fundamental ecosystem services. Nowadays routine measurements of the net biosphere-atmosphere CO2 exchange are conducted at the ecosystem scale in a large variety of ecosystem types across the globe. Gross photosynthetic and ecosystem respiratory fluxes are then typically inferred from the net CO2 exchange and used for benchmarking of terrestrial biosphere models or as backbones for upscaling exercises. Uncertainty in the responses of photosynthesis and respiration to the climate and environmental conditions is a major source of uncertainty in predictions of ecosystem-atmosphere feedbacks under climate change. On the other hand transpiration estimates both at ecosystem to global scales are highly uncertain with estimates ranging from 20 to 90 % of total evapotranspiration. The most important bottleneck to narrow down the uncertainty in transpiration estimates is the fact that direct measurements of transpiration are uncertain and techniques like eddy covariance measure only the total evapotranspiration.
During the last decade, technological developments in field spectroscopy, near surface remote sensing, isotope flux measurements and quantum cascade lasers have enabled alternative approaches for constraining ecosystem-scale photosynthesis, respiration and transpiration. On the other hand a variety of approaches have been developed to directly assess the gross fluxes of CO2 and transpiration by using both process based and empirical models, and machine learning techniques.
In this session we aim at reviewing recent progress made with novel approaches of constraining ecosystem gross photosynthesis, respiration and transpiration and at discussing their weaknesses and future steps required to reduce the uncertainty of present-day estimates. To this end we are seeking contributions that use emerging constrains to improve the ability to quantify respiration and photosynthesis processes, transpiration and water use efficiency, at scales from leaf to ecosystem and global. Particularly welcome are studies reporting advancements and new developments in CO2 and evapotranspiration flux partitioning from eddy covariance data, the use of carbonyl sulfide, stable isotopes approaches, with a special attention on sun-induced fluorescence, whose studies at various scales have flourished in the last years, addressing a large panel of fundamental challenges. The assessment of photosynthesis from space-based measurements of fluorescence will also be the focus of the FLEX mission, currently under implementation by the European Space Agency. This session welcomes presentations contributing to a better knowledge on vegetation fluorescence, including its measurement, modelling, interpretation, new instruments and applications from local to global scales. Modelling studies which enhance our fundamental understanding of ecosystem-atmosphere CO2 exchange at global scale or make use of these emerging new constraints in data assimilation schemes are also welcome.

Monitoring and modeling of vegetation and ecosystem dynamics is fundamental in diagnosing and forecasting Earth system states and feedbacks. However, the underlying ecosystem processes are still relatively poorly described by Earth system models. Confronting terrestrial biogeochemical models at multiple temporal and spatial scales with an ever-increasing amount and diversity of Earth observation data is therefore needed.

To this end, the rapidly growing amount of satellite data has fostered the development of novel global satellite products of vegetation and ecosystem properties (such as fluorescence, microwave vegetation optical depth, biomass, multi-sensor climate data records, new high resolution products), which complement more traditional products, like NDVI, LAI or fAPAR. In this session, we present the most recent advances in:

(1) the production of global land surface biophysical and biochemical variables from satellite observations;

(2) assessment of plausibility, validation and intercomparisons of these products;

(3) their use in studying global ecosystem dynamics related to, e.g., climate variability and change;

(4) benchmarking and improvement of global vegetation models through statistical analysis and model-data integration techniques.

The latter may consider methodological foci or include applications related to the monitoring and modeling of terrestrial vegetation and ecosystem dynamics for timescales from days to decades, also including multiple data streams.

Carbon allocation is a key process in ecosystems: it is coupled with plant growth, fuels metabolism and plays a crucial role for carbon sequestration in standing biomass and soil organic matter. While the importance of carbon allocation for plant and ecosystem functioning and the carbon balance is widely recognized, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanisms, responses to global changes and wider biogeochemical implications. Open questions include: 1) what drives carbon allocation in plants and ecosystems?; 2) what is the fate of newly assimilated carbon?; 3) what determines the allocation of nonstructural carbon to growth, metabolism and storage?, 4) how does carbon allocation affect nutrient and water relations in plant and ecosystems?; and 5) how do allocation patterns change under changing environmental conditions and what are the consequences for biogeochemical cycles? This session invites contributions from observational, experimental and modelling studies.

Silicon (Si) is crucial in numerous biochemical and geochemical processes. Earlier scientific literature on Si cycling focused on abiotic weathering processes, while in recent years, scientists have become more aware of the significant role of biotic controls. Silicon plays a key role in processes governing soil formation and soil-plant feedback interactions. Vegetation, soil organisms, including fauna, microorganisms and fungi, strongly affect Si dynamic in terrestrial ecosystems but the mechanisms are still poorly understood. In particular, Si has numerous beneficial effects on both plant structure, function as well as resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses motivating studies focusing on Si functional ecology and silica biomineralization. The global Si cycle is receiving increased attention because of its links with the carbon cycle as well as other major biogeochemical cycles and toxic elements. A better understanding of the terrestrial Si cycle is thus critical, especially as drastic and subtle changes in the terrestrial Si cycle are occurring worldwide in response to global change.
This session aims at compiling recent work focusing on biogeochemical Si cycling under global change, its functions in terrestrial ecosystems as well as its evolution in the recent past. This session bridges advances from soil sciences, ecology, plant physiology, agronomy, biogeochemistry (including isotopes studies) and paleontology. We invite studies tackling biotic and abiotic interactions at different time and spatial scales affecting the Si cycle and its interactions with other biogeochemical cycles. We encourage interdisciplinary studies as well as contributions from both field and laboratory experiments encompassing biogeochemical processes, molecular mechanisms to improve our understanding of the role of Si in ecosystem processes. Meta-analyses and paleo-environmental studies using phytoliths are also welcome.

Sustainable agriculture is needed to ensure that both present and future societies will be food secure without exacerbating adverse environmental change. Current agricultural production systems are already challenged by several factors, such as climate change, availability and accessibility of water and other inputs, socio-economic conditions, and changing and increasing demand for agricultural products. Agriculture is also expected to contribute to climate change mitigation, to minimize pollution of the environment, and to preserve biodiversity.
Assessing all these challenges requires studying alternative land management options at local to global scales and to assess agricultural production systems rather than individual products.
This session will focus on the modeling of agricultural systems under global change, addressing challenges in adaptation to and mitigation of climate change, sustainable intensification, and environmental impacts of agricultural production across scales. We welcome contributions on methods and data, assessments of climate impacts and adaptation options, environmental impacts, GHG mitigation, and economic evaluations.

Mining and industrial activities, particularly in the past, have left waste deposit sites and contaminated former fertile soils in many countries. Due to future shortage of arable areas as well as raw materials, the recovery of raw materials as well as remediation for future agricultural utilization, and prevention of hazardous leachings to the groundwater continues to be a goal of current and future research. Bioremediation and biomining techniques are considered as cost-effective and environmentally friendly, “green” technologies for the in situ restoration of the health and productive capacity of soils, mitigating environmental impacts of impaired soils, and last but not least, the gain of raw materials (e.g. by phytoextraction). However, optimization of these technologies requires a sound understanding of related biogeochemical processes and the consequences of site management.
This session aims to bring together contributions of all aspects of biomining and bioremediation research including the effects of rhizosphere processes, soil management and microbial leaching.
This includes, among others:

-advances in the understanding of functions of plant-soil-microbe interactions in the rhizosphere

-factors influencing the mobility and leaching of target elements or soil contaminants

-distribution of target elements inside the organisms

-final recovery of metals from accumulator plants or leachates

We welcome presentations of laboratory and field research results as well as theoretical studies. We intend to bring together scientists from multiple disciplines. Young researchers are especially encouraged to submit their contributions.

Land use and land cover change (LULCC) has the capacity to alter the climate by disrupting land-atmosphere fluxes of carbon, water and energy. Much attention has been devoted to the biogeochemical impacts of LULCC, yet there is an increasing awareness that the biogeophysical mechanisms should also be considered in climate change assessments of LULCC impacts on weather and climate. Characterizing biogeophysical land-climate interactions remains challenging due to their complexity and uncertainty. While from the biogeochemical perspective converting forest into grassland leads to warming the climate, from the biogeophysical side it typically entails a rapid increase in albedo and a concomitant decrease in evapotranspiration that may ultimately lead to a cooling or a warming effect, depending on which of the two processes dominates and depending on the size and pattern of the LULCC perturbation. Recent advances exploiting Earth system modelling and Earth observation tools are opening new possibilities to better describe LULCC and its effects at multiple temporal and spatial scales. This session welcomes studies that improve our general understanding of climate perturbations connected to LULCC from both biogeophysical and biogeochemical standpoints, and particularly those focusing on their intersection. Both observation-based and model-based analyses at local to global scales are welcome.

Significant recent changes in climate are linked to an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather and weather-related events such as heat and cold waves, floods, wind and snow storms, droughts, wildfires, tropical storms, dust storms, etc. This underscores the critical need for: (i) monitoring such events; (ii) evaluating the potential risks to the environment and to society, and; (iii) planning in terms of adaptation and/or mitigation of the potential impacts. The intensity and frequency of such extreme weather and climate events follow trends expected of a warming planet, and more importantly, such events will continue to occur with increased likelihood and severity.

Agricultural and forested areas cover large surfaces over many countries and are a very important resource that needs to be protected and managed correctly for both the environment and the local communities. Therefore, potential impacts deriving from a changing climate and from more frequent and intense extreme events can pose a serious threat to economic infrastructure and development in the coming decades, and also severely undermine food, fodder, water, and energy security for a growing global population.

Remote Sensing that includes the use of space, aerial and proximal sensors provide valuable tools to monitor, evaluate and understand ecosystem response and impacts at local, regional, and global scales based on spatio-temporal analysis of long-term imagery and related environmental data. Further, studies allowing the quantitative or qualitative evaluation of the risks, including integrating environmental and socio-economical components are particularly important for the stakeholders and decision-makers at all administrative levels. Thus, it is important to better understand links between climate change/extreme events in relation to associated risks for better planning and sustainable management of our resources in an effective and timely manner.

Relevant abstracts will be encouraged to submit a full paper to a related special issu in the journal NHESS (Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences - https://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/special_issue980.html).

We especially encourage, but not limit, the participation of Early Career Scientists interested in the field of Natural Hazards.

The session is organized in cooperation with NhET (Natural hazard Early career scientists Team).

The world annual consumption of pesticides has amounted to 2.7 × 106 tons in recent years. Agricultural land is the first recipient of pesticides after its application; even if the pesticides are applied in accordance with the regulations, only a minor amount reaches its objectives, while the rest represent possible environmental contaminants and short or long-term harvest products, with a wide range of possible negative impacts. For many pesticides or their degradation products, soils become the non-point source of groundwater contamination (leaching of soluble compounds and compounds linked to colloids) and / or surface water (runoff of soluble compounds, compounds bound to colloids and soil particles, transport from groundwater). On the other hand, these pesticides represent a potential risk for soil biota, such as nematodes, microorganisms and plants.
The purpose of the session is to share the knowledge generated by researchers whose interest lies in the role of soil in the destination and the behavior of emerging contaminants, including pesticides.
This session will include contributions from different areas:
1. Development, validation and application of analytical methods for pesticides and their degradation / transformation products in water, soil, sediment, air and food samples for direct consumption or fresh consumption.
2. Studies of adsorption, desorption, physical transport, synergies, etc. between soil and organic pollutants of agricultural production (pesticides, pharmaceutical products, other emerging pollutants, which favor their environmental availability.
3. Field tests, monitoring and modeling of environmental destinations of pesticides.
4. Effects of mixtures of pesticides and pesticides on non-target organisms and interactions of various classes of pesticides detected in the natural environment.
5. Evaluation of risks of environmental contamination by pesticides.
6. Assessments regarding climate change on the fate and behavior of pesticides.
The scientific session “Soils as a non-point source of contamination by pesticides or their degradation products” will provide an opportunity to research teams working in different parts of the world to discuss their findings within the settings of a large conference.

During the passage of precipitation through the soil-plant-atmosphere interface, water and solutes are redistributed by the plant canopy, subsurface flow and transport processes. Many of these dynamic interactions between vegetation and soil are not yet well understood. This session brings together the vibrant community addressing a better understanding of ecohydrological processes taking place between the canopy and the root zone. Innovative methods investigating throughfall, stemflow, hydraulic redistribution, and root water uptake in various environments shed light on how water and solutes are routed in the thin layer covering the terrestrial ecosystems. The session further covers open questions and new opportunities within the ecohydrological community regarding methodological developments such as the analysis of stable isotope, soil moisture, throughfall or solute dynamics.

Invited speakers:
Daniele Penna (University of Florence, Italy)
Darryl Carlyle-Moses (Thompson Rivers University, Canada)

The coastal ocean has been increasingly recognized as a dynamic component of the global carbon budget. This session aims at fostering our understanding of the roles of coastal environments and of exchange processes, both natural or perturbed, along the terrestrial / coastal sea / open ocean continuum in global biogeochemical cycles. During the session recent advancements in the field of coastal and shelf biogeochemistry will be discussed. Contributions focusing on carbon and nutrient and all other element's cycles in coastal, shelf and shelf break environments, both pelagic and sedimentary, are invited.

This session is multidisciplinary and is open to observational, modelling and theoretical studies in order to promote the dialogue. The session will comprise subsections on coastal carbon storage, and on benthic biogeochemical processes.