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?

Soil degradation; in particular under anthropogenic activities such as agricultural practices or mining reduces the capacity of soils to provide services in quantity and quality leading to crop failure, desertification and reduction of food security and biodiversity. Soil rehabilitation on the other hand aims at improving soil functions and ecosystem services - mostly responsible for crop production and ecosystem health. Hence, soils are currently subjected to an impact never observed since agriculture revolution. The impact of humans on soil reached to a level that can be considered a forming factor - the 6th factor of soil formation. This session gathers studies investigating the impacts of human on pedogenesis. A special focus should be given to the attenuation or improvement of soil functions and ecosystem services as consequence of intensive management. Research focusing on soil degradation or rehabilitation in arid, semi-arid and Mediterranean environments are highlighted in this session as the effects of anthropogenic activities can be intensified by the challenges of prolonged periods of drought and intense and irregular rainfall. We especially acknowledge research linking agricultural practices to soil formation - to develop the theory of agropedogenesis.

Soil erosion and the lateral movement of sediment have a substantially effect on the terrestrial carbon budget. The detachment, transport and deposition of soil and associated carbon strongly regulate the storage of carbon in soils. Given the magnitude and the degree of uncertainty associated with the erosion-induced carbon changes, it is crucial to identify sinks and sources of carbon and its interplay with soil redistribution processes to develop and set up reliable soil carbon management strategies.
Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a fundamental determinant of soil fertility and affects the biological, chemical and physical properties of the soil contributing to its capability to improve soil quality and diminishing soil degradation. To control the loss of SOC by induced erosion efficiently and reduce its environmental impact, there is a critical need to quantify soil redistribution rates and investigate the mechanism of soil erosion processes and its effect on the movement and fate of SOC.
This session intend to present a cross-disciplinary approach to Soil Science research focuses on the quantification of erosion-induced changes on soil carbon storage across landscapes.

Soil erosion has been traditionally divided into sheet, rill, and gully erosion. Rills and gullies concentrate overland flow, leading to a significantly increased flow erosivity. These forms of concentrated flow erosion, both above and below ground, represent an important sediment source within watersheds and produce sizeable economic losses (e.g. reduced crop yields, reservoir sedimentation). Moreover, rills and gullies are effective links for transferring runoff, sediment and pollutants. In addition, channel erosion plays a key role in the development of badlands. Despite their relevance, the physical mechanisms that constitute concentrated flow erosion remain poorly understood.

This session aims to address this research gap and will focus on recent studies aiming to better understand the process of rill and gully erosion, with the ultimate aim of developing predictive tools and effective management strategies. As such we welcome contributions on: monitoring and measurement techniques; the factors and processes controlling rill, piping and gully erosion; modelling approaches; restoration and control; the role of piping, rills and gullies in hydrological and sediment connectivity; and rills, gullies and badland dynamics in a context of Global Change.

Structures and techniques aiming at controlling sediment transport-related or erosion-related issues are numerous and sometimes very old. Hillslope management and bioengineering, reforestation, and torrent control works using transverse structures, as check dams and more recently open check dams, are common all over the world to curtail soil erosion and torrential hazards. These actions may be launched for the control of sediment supply (i) to the stream fans and valley rivers for flood protection, (ii) to dam reservoirs for water storage, and basically, (iii) for the mere mountain soil conservation and agriculture protection. The profound objectives of each action are diverse and vary depending on the geomorphic context and local state of the sediment cascade, where the implementation takes place. The lack of sufficient understanding of soil erosion processes, sediment (dis)connectivity activation and torrential hazards propagation continues to make soil erosion prevention and torrent control complex topics with insufficient implementation criteria and long-term effect assessment methods. Consequently, some projects still experience disappointing results due to many different reasons, such as poor construction quality, inadequate location or lack of adequate design criteria. In addition, these actions induce secondary effects (e.g., block of the downstream transfer of water and sediments), which should be better controlled or possibly prevented. This EGU session aims at gathering the whole community interested in human actions on control works and soil conservation techniques at the waterhed scale. Any contributions to the understanding of soil erosion control and sediment transport management based on detailed field experiences, high-quality laboratory works, validated numerical models and effectiveness assessment methods are welcome. Using the knowledge gaps identified above as a starting point, the proposed EGU session wishes, for the third year, to join and share scientific and technical opinions from all around the world, related to the legacy effects of soil erosion control and (open) check-dam design criteria, highlighting the role of the complex interactions between ecological elements, geomorphic processes and engineering activities.

The quantification and understanding of hydrological, erosive, and biogeochemical processes in catchments are essential to the sustainable management of water and soil resources. Assessment of the environmental impact of economic activities in catchments should be based on the acquisition of experimental data to implement and/or to evaluate conservation practices at different scales. Simulation models are important tools to address environmental problems in a cost-effective way. This technology has to be be coalesced with coherent scientific assumptions and experimental data to minimize the degree of uncertainty involved in representing existing conditions and to provide for instrumental information about alternative sustainable scenarios.

In this session, the authors are encouraged to present new environmental challenges related with the use of models or innovative approaches to quantify hydrological and soil erosion approaches. In addition to classical modeling procedures such as evaluation and recognition of model structures, sensitivity analysis, calibration, validation and degree of uncertainty quantification; the authors are encouraged to present new conceptualizations and experiments to address current environmental problems facing society as well as all kinds of tools and techniques aimed at the conservation of water, soil and nutrients.

Soil is the key element in the Earth System for controlling hydrological, biological, erosional and geochemical cycles. Moreover, the soils are the source of food and fiber services and resources for human societies. This key role that soils play makes soil conservation necessary to achieve a sustainable world. Soil erosion is a key threat because agriculture, deforestation, grazing, fire, road construction and mining accelerate soil erosion rates. Soil erosion control can be achieved at the pedon scale and slope scale where the detachment of sediments can be controlled with conservation tillage, catch crops, weeds, mulches or geotextiles, afforestation, check-dams and so on. Generally, the protection of the soil on the slopes needs complementary strategies on the channels as the low sediment concentration of the runoff increases the overland flow efficiency and results in rill and gully incision. In order to avoid the incision of channels and high erosion rates on slopes, management strategies must to be applied. Improving vegetation cover and biodiversity may help to avoid soil degradation. This session will show examples of successful and unsuccessful management actions to rehabilitate and restore degraded ecosystems taking into account soil and vegetation interfaces. We will pay special attention to the strategies and the techniques for restoring arid and semi-arid ecosystems. Thus, this session proposes an exchange of knowledge, ideas and new techniques and strategies that are used in arid and semi-arid ecosystems worldwide. We encourage you to submit papers from your own research experience, review papers, and your experience on research and applied projects in order to establish future guidelines for soil erosion and plant conservation.

Among the many mitigation measures available for reducing the risk to life related to landslides, early warning systems certainly constitute a significant option available to the authorities in charge of risk management and governance. Landslide early warning systems (LEWS) are non-structural risk mitigation measures applicable at different scales of analysis: slope and regional. Systems addressing single landslides at slope scale can be named local LEWS (Lo-LEWS), systems operating over wide areas at regional scale are referred to as territorial systems (Te-LEWSs). An initial key difference between Lo-LEWSs and Te-LEWSs is the knowledge “a priori” of the areas affected by future landsliding. When the location of future landslides is unknown and the area of interest extends beyond a single slope, only Te-LEWS can be employed. Conversely, Lo-LEWSs are typically adopted to cope with the risk related to one or more known well-identified landslides.

Independently by the scale of analysis, the structure of LEWS can be schematized as an interrelation of four main modules: setting, modelling, warning, response. However, the definition of the elements of these modules and the aims of the warnings/alerts issued considerably vary as a function of the scale at which the system is employed.

The session focuses on landslide early warning systems (LEWSs) at both regional and local scales. The session wishes to highlight operational approaches, original achievements and developments useful to operate reliable (efficient and effective) local and territorial LEWS. Moreover, the different schemes describing the structure of a LEWS available in literature clearly highlight the importance of both social and technical aspects in the design and management of such systems.

For the above-mentioned reasons, contributions addressing the following topics are welcome:
• rainfall thresholds definition;
• monitoring systems for early warning purposes;
• warning models for warning levels issuing;
• performance analysis of landslide warning models;
• communication strategies;
• emergency phase management;
• landslide risk perception.

Mountain environments host highly dynamical and widespread erosion, sedimentation, and weathering processes. These processes cover a wide range of temporal and spatial scales, from glacial & periglacial erosion, mechanical & chemical weathering, rock fall, debris flows, landslides, to river aggradation & incision. These processes react to a wide spectrum of external and internal forcings, including permafrost retreat, strong precipitation events, climate change, earthquakes or sudden internal failure. Measuring the dynamical interplay of erosion, sedimentation as well as quantifying their rates and fluxes is an important part of source to sink research but it is highly challenging and often limited by difficult terrain. Furthermore, these dynamical processes can threaten important mountain infrastructures and need to be understood and quantified for a better societal and engineering preparation to the natural hazards they pose.

We welcome contributions investigating:
- sediment mobilization and deposition
- links between erosion, weathering, and the carbon cycle
- concepts of dynamics and connectivity of sediments and solutes
- quantification of erosion, sedimentation, and weathering fluxes in space and time
- sediment travel times and transport processes
- interaction of stabilizing and destabilizing processes on the slopes
We invite presentations that focus on conceptual, methodological, or modelling approaches or a combination of those in mountain environments and particularly encourage early career scientists to apply for this session.

Soil-forming processes can be observed at various spatial and temporal scales, including molecular - microscopic - pedon - landscape scales, and a similarly wide range of temporal scales. They are influenced not only by the “classical five” soil-forming factors, but also by the factor “humans”. This holds true not only for the industrial period and urbanized areas, but also for palaeopedological and archaeological contexts.

In this session, we seek abstracts on all of these aspects of “soils as records in time and space”:
- soil processes proceeding at different scales, incl. interactions across scales (both spatial and temporal)
- human-induced soil changes (incl. mechanical and chemical changes, as well as the introduction of artificial parent materials)
- advances in understanding weathering mechanisms and mineralogical changes in time and space
- linkages of spatial patterns and processes in soil landscapes over time
- processes taking place on short time scales, thereby contributing to long-term soil changes
- aeolian inputs to soils, implications for soil genesis and ecologically relevant soil properties
- palaeosols and geomorphic features as records of former environments and human activity

In the past two decades, connectivity has emerged as a relevant conceptual framework for understanding the transfer of water and sediment through landscapes. In geomorphology, the concept has had particular success in the fields of fluvial geomorphology and soil erosion to better explain rates and patterns of hydro-geomorphic geomorphic change in catchment systems. Although much progress has been made in the understanding of the physical processes that control the flows of matter through the landscape, applying this understanding across a range of scales has long hampered progress.
This session invites contributions from all areas of geomorphology (incl. soil science and hydrology) illustrating or identifying the role of connectivity for geomorphology on a local, regional or global scale. Specific themes we would like to promote are:
- advancement of the theory of connectivity, including sound and unambiguous definitions of
connectivity and related parameters,
- methodology development for measuring connectivity in field and laboratory settings,
having a special focus on experiments for conceptualizing the different processes involved,
- the development and application of suitable models and indices of connectivity,
- determining how the concept can be used to enable sustainable land and water management
The session is organized by the IAG-working group “Connectivity in geomorphology” aiming to develop an international network of connectivity scientists, to share expertise and develop a consensus on the definition and scientific agenda regarding the emerging field of connectivity in geomorphology.

Aeolian processes operate at a myriad of spatial and temporal scales both on Earth and other planetary bodies. Process and form are linked by feedback mechanisms that drive the evolution of forms and at the larger scale the landscape itself. This session brings together research traversing the spectrum of scale, from long term landscape dating and evolution modelling to small-scale process studies. It will be of interest to researchers that study wind-blown sediment (both sand and dust sized particles) and associated bedforms in a range of environments, from coastal and semi-arid regions, to hyper arid deserts and other planets. Contributions that use novel instrumentation in field or laboratory studies, remote sensing at the landscape scale, innovative numerical modelling or theoretical approaches, are encouraged, particularly those which attempt to elucidate feedback between surface properties and sediment transport.

This session is co-sponsored by the International Society for Aeolian Research (ISAR; http://www.aeolianresearch.com/). The best student presentation (oral or poster) in this session will receive two-year ISAR membership and a book prize.

During the Quaternary Period, the last 2.6 million years of Earth's history, changes in environments and climate shaped human evolution. In particular, large-scale features of atmospheric circulation patterns varied significantly due to the dramatic changes in global boundary conditions which accompanied abrupt changes in climate. Reconstructing these environmental changes relies heavily on precise and accurate chronologies. Radiocarbon dating continues to play a vital role in providing chronological control over the last 50,000 years, but advances in recent years on a range of other geochronological techniques that are applicable to the Quaternary have made available a much wider diversity of methods. In this session, contributions are particularly welcome that aim to (1) reduce, quantify and express dating uncertainties in any dating method, including high-resolution radiocarbon approaches, (2) use established geochronological methods to answer new questions, (3) use new methods to address longstanding issues, or (4) combine different chronometric techniques for improved results, including the analysis of chronological datasets with novel methods, such as Bayesian age-depth modelling. Applications may aim to understand long-term landscape evolution, quantify rates of geomorphological processes, or provide chronologies for records of climate change.

To fully diagnose the mechanisms behind the complex teleconnections of past abrupt climate transitions accurate dating and correlation is imperative. This is one of the main goals of the INTIMATE initiative. Furthermore, we aim towards a global approach to integrating climate data, by considering archives from the tropics to the poles and develop our understanding of proxy-sensitivities to different aspects of climate and environmental change (e.g. temperature, precipitation, nutrient availability, sunlight). Finally, we should test our hypotheses and challenge our ideas using models of atmosphere-ocean-biosphere processes. INTIMATE aims to provide a better understanding of the mechanisms of abrupt climate change, with a particular emphasis on the integration and interpretation of global records of abrupt climate changes during the last glacial to interglacial cycle.

Our invited speaker is Prof. Tim Jull, the Editor of the Radiocarbon Journal who will speak about
"Annual carbon-14 variability in tree-rings: Causes and Implications for the calibration curve."

The interactions between plants and soil microbes are an important focus of terrestrial ecology. While synergistic, mutualistic and antagonistic interactions have been a primary focus in the literature, recent work with high-throughput sequencing methods has found that the whole soil microbial community can have a strong effect on plant success. Thus, much development has been made to understand the mechanisms underlying plant-microbe interactions in a community context.
At the same time, our planet is under increasing global change pressures. Climate change, land-use change, pollution - among other pressures - can disrupt the critical interactions between plants and soil microbes. Yet many questions remain: how disrupted interactions can reorganize and affect ecosystem functions - from soil nutrient cycling to plant productivity. In this session, we welcome studies examining how plant-soil-microbe interactions are affected by global change pressures and the ramification of these disruptions for ecosystem processes. We especially encourage contributions that examine interactions in a community or ecosystem context.

Soil biodiversity and function are highly responsive to natural and anthropogenically inflicted changes. Soil biota are affected by climatic factors (temperature and soil moisture) as well as by the quality of above and belowground litter. Climatic variables affect soil community structure and activity by direct and indirect interactive factors. Directly, via suppression of particular groups by low/high mean annual temperatures or by drought/flooding, and indirectly, via regulation of plant community composition and productivity. Plant communities determine structure and activity of microorganisms by chemical composition of litter and root exudates (nutrients), as well as modifying soil chemical properties (pH, soil organic matter content and quality). In addition, anthropogenic practices strongly modify climatic conditions, impact nutrient cycling and cause an input of man-made substances and toxins, which may shift or even tilt the natural equilibrium of microbial communities and processes in soil.

In a series of oral and poster presentations this session will present advances in soil biological and functional diversity. Topics presented in this session will include, but are not limitted to, the formation of soil microbial community structures and activities under the effects of i) temperature and soil moisture fluctuations (climatic factors), ii) plant community types (forests, grasslands, biological soil crusts, agricultural lands) iii) various agricultural practices (including flooding, application of mineral and organic fertilizers). Particular attention will be given to the i) separation of the effects of climatic and biotic factors, and ii) simultaneous estimation of microbial community structure and activity to reveal the driving factors for both. Overall, this session will give a broad overview about the effect of environmental conditions on formation and functioning of biological communities in soils and possible new research directions.

Microorganisms living in soil are usually well adapted to environmental fluctuations, but are challenged by unfavourable conditions related to the food supply combined to variations in temperature, soil moisture, electron acceptor availability, predators, viruses, and mechanical forces. Despite being well-adapted, we do not know how microbial metabolism and community composition will be affected by changes in these conditions. In fact, climate scenarios predict not only continued global warming but also strong changes in temperature and precipitation. At the same time, we have seen major shifts in land use with an increase in large-scale agricultural practices and urbanization. Both climate and land-use change alter the metabolism of soil organisms and soil biodiversity from the micro-scale (bacteria, fungi, archea, protozoa, virus) to the macro-scale (soil animals, earthworms, arthropods, nematodes, etc.). This can have significant ramifications for soil functions including soils’ ability to store organic carbon, support agriculture and conserve biodiversity.
This session collects experimental and modelling studies to understand microbial life, propagation, communication, growth, functioning, adaptations, maintenance metabolism, death, and necromass stabilisation in soil. Plant-microbe interactions and soil biota contribution to carbon sequestrations and crop production are also considered. In this broad context, this session also presents contributions on carbon use efficiency (CUE=ratio of biomass production over carbon substrate consumption) as an indicator or microbial metabolism. These include CUE estimation in soil using advanced methods – isotope labelling, kinetic studies, isothermal calorimetry, and approaches disclosing the effect of microbial community composition and activity on CUE – and modelling studies. A major common challenge in all these areas of soil ecology is how to scale observations and model concepts from organism and communities to soil profiles, ecosystems and finally to scales relevant to management and policy, all the way to the global scale. We thus welcome innovative and interdisciplinary studies that are pushing the field of soil ecology from the understanding of ecological and biogeochemical processes in soils to addressing global sustainability issues.

Soils host a vast biodiversity across various kingdoms, with multiple interactions within and between communities and with the surrounding environment. In this session, we will investigate how biodiversity in soils responds on biotic and abiotic factors across various spatial scales. We will study the functional roles of these communities in processes like nutrient and water cycling, trace gas exchange with the atmosphere, soil erosion, mineral weathering, and vascular plant germination and growth. We will put one special focus on extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and their role in promoting microbial adhesion to surfaces, reducing cellular desiccation, protecting against antibiotics or toxic molecules, and even acting as a final source of nutrition under extreme scarcity. The amount, composition and functionality of EPS in soils, biological soil crusts, sediments or other porous media will be investigated. Responses of soil communities to land use and climate change as well as other potential threats will also be included in this session. Besides temperate soil communities, we will focus on biological soil crusts occurring in hot and cold deserts around the world, and biofilms forming in coastal regions of freshwater and marine environments.

Soil is a heterogeneous and structured environment that is characterised by variable geometry, composition and stability, across spatial scales spanning several orders of magnitude. The physical structure of solid and pore space results in a complex distribution of oxygen, water films and gradients of solutes spanning distances as small as a few micrometers, all of which have a profound effect on the ecological and hydrological functioning of soil.
The soil structure is determined by an interplay of physical, chemical and biological mechanisms, the quantitative role of which is still poorly understood. Soil structure is difficult to study as it is a 3D opaque matrix. To shed light into soil structure, the concept of aggregate has often been used and defines “pieces” of soil structure, that remain bounded under disrupting forces. Microaggregates (250µm) are larger soil units, composed by microaggregates and primary particles, bound together by biological agents, such as roots, fungal hyphae or even earthworm activity. Cutting edge imaging techniques are as well used to observe “in situ” associations of mineral and organic material at micro- and macro-scales and the resulting ever changing pore space, which is partly destroyed when focusing on aggregates, even though it has a fundamental role in soil ecology and functioning.

In this session we integrate the description of structure and its dynamics, using new imaging techniques, with the ecological, functional and physical consequences of the spatial arrangement of soil constituents. A strong interdisciplinary approach is thus required, merging soil physicists, chemists and ecologists. The ultimate aim is to understand how soil structure, from micro-architecture to macropores, emerges from interactions within soil and how it determines the outcome of soil processes, in order to create models of soil functioning that integrate structure dynamics.
This session is divided into two oral blocks, one focusing more on the micro-scale in relation to microbial activities and the other accounting for micro- and macro-scale in relation to soil ecology of larger organisms and soil functioning. Carsten Mueller is the solicited speaker of the first oral block and Matthias Rillig is solicited for the second oral block.

The interactions between plants and their environment in biogeochemical cycles have drawn substantial attention in the domains of soil science, hydrology, plant physiology, ecology and climatology in recent years. This interest stems from the need for improved predictability of plant-related transfer processes to face fundamental environmental and agricultural issues, like for instance crop drought tolerance, contaminant transport, and the impact of global change on plant-mediated resource and energy fluxes in terrestrial systems.
Emerging experimental techniques and system modeling tools have deepened our insights into the functioning of water and nutrient transport processes in the soil-root system. Yet, quantitative approaches connectable across disciplines and scales nowadays constitute step stones to foster our understanding of fundamental biophysical processes at the frontier of soil and roots.

This session targets researchers investigating plant-related resource transfer processes from the rhizosphere to the field scale, and aims at gathering scientists from multiple disciplines ranging from soil physics to plant physiology. This includes:
- Novel experimental techniques assessing below-ground plant processes
- Measuring and modeling soil and plant water fluxes across scales
- Bridging the gap between biology and soil physics through numerical modeling
- Plant water and nutrient uptake under abiotic stress
- Impact of plant uptake on solute transport in soil
- etc…

Invited speakers:
Prof. Dr. Andrea Carminati from the Chair of Soil Physics, University of Bayreuth, Germany.
Prof. Dr. Paul Hallett from the Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom

Public information:
Invited speakers:
1) Prof. Dr. Andrea Carminati from the Chair of Soil Physics, University of Bayreuth, Germany.
2) Prof. Dr. Paul Hallett from the Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom

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)

Advancing our understanding of how biotic and abiotic processes control soil organic matter stocks, stability, stabilisation mechanisms, biochemical transformations, and loss from terrestrial ecosystems remains a major focus in biogeochemistry today. This session aims to facilitate discussions that improve our understanding of how complex biotic and abiotic processes interact in the terrestrial ecosystem, in particular during periods of natural- or anthropogenic-induced change and across a range of scales from molecular, profile, plot, landscape, and global scales to control soil organic matter dynamics. Furthermore, the session welcomes submissions that focus on: (a) relationship of soil organic matter transformations with length and intensity of weathering processes that modify minerals and create a distinct soil matrix in which biological processes take place; (b) dynamics of soil organic matter in deep soil layers using experimental and modeling approaches and (c) plant-soil interactions on soil carbon and nutrient cycling. This session will contribute to improving our understanding and future predictive capabilities of carbon dynamics in the earth system by bringing together scientists working on improving our mechanistic understanding of key soil organic matter processing, with the explicit goal of promoting inclusion of the interplay of biology, climate, geochemistry and pedology into large-scale model frameworks.

Ecosystems, particularly soils, are a globally important reservoir for organic carbon (OC) and contribute significantly to CO2 emissions. Soil organic matter is further vital for soil fertility and sustainable agriculture, and has the potential to increase and safeguard agricultural yields against climate change. Reducing losses of organic carbon (OC) from soils and restoring or even further enhancing soil OC stocks therefore offers a strategy to combine the benefits of climate change mitigation with improved soil quality. Nevertheless there are still a range of frontier areas of research on soil OC that have to be tackled to understand and manage the potential of soils to sequester additional or maintain carbon. These include for example soil carbon saturation, carbon stability in subsoils, carbon input quality, soil structure and management practices, as well as ways to verify changes in soil carbon stocks. Also, there is still large uncertainty on the time scales at which carbon stays in soils and other ecosystem compartments, with flux based and modelling approaches often suggesting faster OC turnover than radiocarbon based approaches.
We invite presentations addressing these or other areas of pioneering research on SOM sequestration and temporal dynamics using experimental, synthesis, or modelling approaches.

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).

Stability of soil functioning is closely related to biochemical turnover and microbial recycling of carbon (C) and nutrients. Despite numerous studies aimed on soil organic matter (SOM) formation, accumulation, and decomposition, most of them consider only one direction: formation or decomposition, sorption or mineralization. Consequently, the questions of C turnover and nutrients recycling remain opened.
This session invites contributions to cycles of organic substances in soil, turnover processes and rates, as well as recycling of nutrients and soil organic matter compounds by microorganisms. We appreciate studies focused on turnover mechanisms of fast and slow cycling pools, as well as on substances preferably reutilized by bacteria and fungi. Investigations based on an application of isotope labeling (e.g. 13C, 14C, 15N, 33P, 18O), as well as pools dating approaches are very welcome. Soil and environmental controls of turnover and recycling rates are of a special interest.

Soil organic matter (SOM) plays a key role not only in soil fertility and quality (by providing a number of physical, chemical, and biological benefits), but also in C cycling. The decline of SOM represents one of the most serious threats facing many arable lands of the world. Beside this, there is an imperative necessity of a sustainable management for the increasing quantity of organic waste. Crop residues and animal manures have long been successfully used as soil organic amendments to preserve and enhance SOM pools. During the last decade, pyrolysis (the combustion of biomass under low or no oxygen supply) is showing a promising approach for managing carbon-rich wastes such as sewage sludge, the pulp and paper industry residues or crop residues and to create added value co-products.
Besides serving as a source of organic matter and plant nutrients, these materials may contribute to fight plant diseases and reduce soil contamination, erosion, and desertification. A safe and useful application of organic amendments requires an in-depth scientific knowledge of their nature and impacts on the soil-plant system, as well as on the surrounding environment. While the benefits biochar or fly ashes as soil ameliorants and fertilizers are very well known, the knowledge of the use of other sorts of pyrogenic organic matter as well as the effects of biochar in SOM composition at a long term are very scarce.
This interdisciplinary session will focus on the current research and recent advances on the use of organic amendments including pyrogenic organic materials such as biochar or wood ash in modern agriculture as well as for the restoration of degraded soils, covering physical, chemical, biological, biochemical, environmental and socio-economical aspects by bringing together scientists from the diverse fields of soil, applied pyrolysis, bioenergy waste management, SOM characterization, carbon dynamics and plant nutrition.

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.

Soil is an environment where minerals undergo steady changes with consequences to the bioavailability and cycling of elements. Chemical weathering of primary minerals provides nutrients to soil biota and results in the formation of secondary minerals that react strongly with pollutants, organic matter, and organisms. Soil minerals, therefore, are major controls in the biogeochemical cycling of elements in soil. The complex interactions between minerals and their abiotic and biotic environment offer numerous challenges to modern environmental research, such as (1) the identification of relevant mineral-related processes at different spatial and temporal scales, (2) the determination of properties of soil minerals, and (3) the resulting impact of soil minerals on element speciation, mobility, and bioavailability. The session aims at bringing together expertise in field, laboratory, and modelling studies for shedding light on all aspects of soil minerals as determinants in the biogeochemical cycling of major (e.g., carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulphur) and trace elements (e.g., antimony, cadmium, molybdenum, and selenium).

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.

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.

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.

Cracks, fractures and macropores are typical features of natural soils and fissured rock formations, and promote preferential flow and mass transfer. Lithological heterogeneity (e.g., soil layering, lateral and vertical bedding, channels, etc.) adds its contribution to preferential flow at larger scales. In addition to these physical factors, chemical and geochemical processes (e.g., organic matter) may promote typical hydraulic behaviors leading to preferential flow (e.g., hydrophobicity and finger flow). This session focuses on experimental and theoretical challenges and state of the art of methods to characterize, measure and model preferential flows, and their effects on water infiltration into the soil, flow in the vadose zone, and their implications for the water-soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. The session also welcomes studies on the impact of preferential flows on mass transfer in the vadose zone of fractured porous media and heterogeneous soils. Preferential flows are expected to regulate the access of pollutants and solutes to soil reactive particles, and thus the efficiency of pollutant removal by soils and the geochemical processes that govern soil evolution and weathering processes (e.g., precipitation / dissolution processes). On larger scales, some landforms, such as mine waste covers are known to have highly heterogeneous properties, and yet quantifying and modelling water and solute movement in these systems is often required for regulatory and management purposes.
The proposed session will welcome studies including but limited to the following topics:
• Tracking preferential flows and mass transfers in soils using high-tech tracer techniques including MRI, tomography CAT, etc.
• Visualization or abstraction of the pore and fracture structure (pore size distribution, pore connectivity, type of macroporosity) or field heterogeneity (lithological and geological heterogeneity) and implications for preferential flow
• Linking preferential flow pattern with soil geochemical properties (e.g. organic matter and hydrophobicity)
• Coupling the physical processes of preferential flows and geochemical processes for understanding solute sorption and solute desorption, and mineral precipitation and dissolution
• Fracture network geometry and connectivity, its influence on volume-effective flow and mass transport dynamics, and on matrix-fracture interaction processes
• Recent theoretical developments for modeling preferential flows across scales – with scaling efforts from the pore and fracture to the Darcian and landscape scales
• Quantification and modelling of water flow and solute transport within heterogeneous substrates and complex geological structures such as mine wastes (e.g. tailings and waste rocks), mine waste covers and rocky/gravelly substrate

The analysis of infiltration, especially when infiltration experiments are used to estimate soil hydraulic properties, is becoming increasingly important for the geosciences community. Indeed, infiltration process is an important component of the hydrological cycle; it refers to the entry into the soil of water and all substances transported by it. Thus, estimates of soil infiltrability are mandatory key tasks to be performed on a number of hydrologic, agronomic, ecological or environmental studies. Under natural conditions, infiltration is characterized by high spatial variability resulting from a high degree heterogeneity of both soil texture and structure. On the other hand, local infiltration experiments are sensitive to space-time variability of the unsaturated soil properties. High-resolution infiltration measurement is crucial to properly describe and analyze soil water properties needed to model soil water flow. The aim of the session focus is on the principles, capabilities, and applications of both infiltration techniques and models at different scales, including, but not limited to: - field infiltration measurements for a wide variety of infiltration devices, from the most simple to the most sophisticated and complete, combined to complementary information provided by other methods (i.e., TDR probes, GPR, ERT, etc.), - new or revisited numerical and analytical models to account for multiple-porosity, hydrophobicity, organic matter, or swelling on infiltration, clogging, biofilm development; and many other factors that are not taken into account in classic infiltration models, - estimation of soil hydraulic parameters, among which the saturated-unsaturated hydraulic conductivity and sorptivity which are fundamental in soil science. We will explore diverse topics of infiltration and interactions encompassing soil processes. The session is not limited by methodology or approach and we welcome studies including laboratory or numerical simulation of infiltration, in-situ studies of water and solutes infiltration. We welcome contributions from simulated and real data investigations in the laboratory or field, successful and failed case studies as well as the presentation of new and promising infiltration approaches.

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.

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.

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.

Sorbent materials have various environmental applications, i.e. water filtration, separation, and purification. Rapid progress in nanotechnology and a new focus on biomass-based instead of non-renewable starting materials have produced a wide range of novel engineered sorbents. The development and evaluation of novel sorbents requires a multidisciplinary approach encompassing environmental, nanotechnology, physical, analytical, and surface chemistry. The necessary evaluations encompass not only the efficiency of these materials to remove contaminants from surface waters and groundwater, industrial wastewater, polluted soils and sediments, etc., but also the potential side-effects of their environmental applications. Contributions examining the use of novel sorbents for environmental remediation are welcome. More specifically the contributions may be focused on:

• biosorbents: characterization; evaluation;
• biochars: process optimization; physically and chemically activated biochars;
• reactive sorbents: development; characterization; evaluation;
• nanotechnology based sorbents: development; characterization; evaluation;
• development of sorbents, reactive sorbents, or catalysts from geomaterials;
• sorbent-based in-situ remediation of contaminated soils, aquifers and sediments: experimental work; field studies;
• ecotoxicity of novel sorbents.

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.

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.

Public information:
The release of radioactive materials by human activity (such as nuclear accidents) are both severe hazard problem as well as ideal markers in understanding geoscience at all level of the Earth because it cycles through atmosphere, soil, plant, water system, ocean, and lives. Therefore, we must gather knowledge from all geoscience field for comprehensive understanding.

Several types of nature-based solutions (NbS) for land and water management have been implemented. They are multi-beneficial, not only to prevent and mitigate climate-related risks, providing more resilient cities, but also to improve human well-being and further pave the way towards a more resource efficient, competitive and greener economy. However, adequate proof-of-concept for economic, social and environmental benefits provided by NbS is needed to promote their inclusion in planning and decision-making processes.
This session aims to promote exchange of knowledge regarding NbS and to discuss their relevance for sustainable development, through evidence-based and scalable case studies. The session seeks to:
• Better understand advantages and disadvantages of NbS, based on field applications;
• Provide new insights and perspectives of NbS at catchment level, particularly their role on water, sediment, nutrient and pollutant fluxes;
• Introduce new methods and tools to investigate the role of NbS in the context of climate change, namely its effectiveness for mitigation and/or adaptation to it;
• Identify opportunities and barriers driven by current regulatory frameworks and management practices, and how the former can be reaped and the latter overcome, for successful implementation of NbS;
• Present an overview of case studies and examples of NbS projects that could involve the private sector and market-based mechanisms;
• Discuss the interactions between NbS and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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.

Acid sulfate soils are found around the world in both coastal and freshwater environments. These soils are dominated by metal sulfides, which, when exposed to oxygen, oxidise and result in acidification of soil and water. Acidification causes detrimental impacts to agricultural land, natural and managed ecosystems and infrastructure in urban environments. We invite submissions on all aspects of acid sulfate soils, sulfidic materials, and wetland soils in natural, managed and anthropogenic ecosystems.

Environmental systems often span spatial and temporal scales covering different orders of magnitude. The session is oriented in collecting studies relevant to understand multiscale aspects of these systems and in proposing adequate multi-platform surveillance networks monitoring tools systems. It is especially aimed to emphasize the interaction between environmental processes occurring at different scales. In particular, a special attention is devoted to the studies focused on the development of new techniques and integrated instrumentation for multiscale monitoring high natural risk areas, such as: volcanic, seismic, slope instability and other environmental context.
We expect contributions derived from several disciplines, such as applied geophysics, seismology, geodesy, geochemistry, remote sensing, volcanology, geotechnical and soil science. In this context, the contributions in analytical and numerical modeling of geodynamics processes are also welcome.
Finally, a special reference is devoted to the integration through the use of GeoWeb platforms and the management of visualization and analysis of multiparametric databases acquired by different sources