The forest floor is the most reactive part of forest soils with much faster biogeochemical turnover than the mineral soil. Owing to its high reactivity and to its position as interface between the aboveground and belowground parts of the ecosystem, it is more responsive to climatic or management changes of forest ecosystems than the mineral soil. Currently, temperate European forests undergo significant changes, mainly induced by climate change, eutrophication, species composition and management. Negative consequences for forest floor functioning are documented, potentially impacting forest soils as a whole. Yet, forest floors are often not considered adequately and therefore, we are neither in a position to assess the current state of functioning or predict future developments, nor can we estimate consequences for mineral soils and forest ecosystem health.
With this session we encourage interdisciplinary exchange addressing the causal links between controls, properties, and functioning of forest floors. We aim to elucidate forest floor vulnerability to climate change and to identify biological, chemical, morphological and physical forest floor properties, serving as indicators for forest soil health. We encourage contributions that integrate multiple scientific disciplines and approaches to draw a holistic picture of forest floor functioning at different levels from micro, to soil profile to the landscape scale.