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SSS4.3 | Arctic, Antarctic and alpine soil food web biodiversity and biogeochemical impacts
EDI
Arctic, Antarctic and alpine soil food web biodiversity and biogeochemical impacts
Convener: Sylvain MonteuxECSECS | Co-conveners: Maria ScheelECSECS, Jan Frouz, Stef Bokhorst
Soil food webs are complex and diverse, ranging taxonomically from viruses to rodents, arthropods and plant roots, but are too rarely approached in their entirety and many studies focus instead on a single group of interest. Similarly, soil biogeochemistry is also largely impacted by food webs, yet numerous studies reduce them to a "black box" when considering the physical effects of e.g. warming or increased snow depth. Therefore, soil food webs and their biogeochemical impacts remain poorly understood, particularly so in remote areas such as the Arctic. Moreover, Arctic soils and the fate of their enormous carbon and nitrogen stocks are a major uncertainty in our understanding of biogeochemical cycles in a warmer world, while being superimposed with drivers such as glaciations that continue to have profound impacts on soil functioning and biogeochemistry.

In this interdisciplinary session, we invite studies linking the soil food web with their biogeochemical impacts, not only in the Arctic but also in other cold environments characterized by glaciation history and strong biogeographical limitations, i.e. the Antarctic and glacier forefronts in alpine regions. We expect that putting together cross-taxa and interdisciplinary approaches to the soil food web and its biogeochemical impacts across analogue ecosystems will lead to stimulating discussions and perhaps to the discovery of common patterns in the establishment and functionality of soil food webs in post-glacial environments.