Soil biodiversity and the provision of services that are beneficial to the productivity and sustainability of land use systems occur at different spatio-temporal scales and depend on environmental factors. Biogeographic mapping and land use systems affect soil biodiversity and how soil biodiversity (i.e. the performance of functional groups) feeds back to soil functions and ecosystem services. Soil organisms are at the center of soil organic matter formation and degradation. They transfer plant-derived carbon into stabile soil carbon pools, which has been termed the soil-carbon-pump. Carbon use efficiency (CUE), the efficiency of the pump as well as growth and turnover, the pump’s throughput, are increasingly used to describe soil organic matter formation. Since CUE and growth are influenced by numerous biotic and abiotic factors and interactions, a wide range of approaches has been used to get a grip on the controls of the soil-carbon-pump.
In this session, we welcome studies on spatio-temporal aspects of soil biodiversity as well as the role of soil organisms in the carbon cycle, and especially on soil microbial physiology, CUE, growth and turnover. We encourage contributions that examine soil biodiversity on all scales and trophic levels, CUE, microbial growth and turnover in models, lab and field experiments, and in ecological conceptual frameworks.