All science has uncertainty. Global challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change illustrate that an effective dialogue between science and society requires clear communication of uncertainty. Responsible science communication conveys the challenges of managing uncertainty that is inherent in data, models and predictions, facilitating the society to understand the contexts where uncertainty emerges and enabling active participation in discussions. This session invites presentations by individuals and teams on communicating scientific uncertainty to non-expert audiences, addressing topics such as:

(1) Innovative and practical tools (e.g. from social or statistical research) for communicating uncertainty
(2) Pitfalls, challenges and solutions to communicating uncertainty with non-experts
(3) Communicating uncertainty in risk and crisis situations (e.g., natural hazards, climate change, public health crises)

Examples of research fitting into the categories above include a) new, creative ways to visualize different aspects of uncertainty, b) new frameworks to communicate the level of confidence associated with research, c) testing the effectiveness of existing tools and frameworks, such as the categories of “confidence” used in expert reports (e.g., IPCC), or d) research addressing the challenges of communicating high-uncertainty high-impact events.

This session encourages you to share your work and join a community of practice to inform and advance the effective communication of uncertainty in earth and space science.

Science communication includes the efforts of natural, physical and social scientists, communications professionals, and teams that communicate the process and values of science and scientific findings to non-specialist audiences outside of formal educational settings. The goals of science communication can include enhanced dialogue, understanding, awareness, enthusiasm, improving decision making, or influencing behaviors. Channels can include in-person interaction, online, social media, mass media, or other methods. This session invites presentations by individuals and teams on science communication practice, research, and reflection, addressing questions like:

What kind of communication efforts are you engaging in and how you are doing it?
How is social science informing understandings of audiences, strategies, or effects?
What are lessons learned from long-term communication efforts?

This session invites you to share your work and join a community of practice to inform and advance the effective communication of earth and space science.

Soil erosion is one of the principal drivers of land degradation, with numerous onsite effects on soil availability and quality, and off-site impacts in freshwater environments. The environmental, economic and political impacts of land degradation motivate a comprehensive scientific understanding of the physical processes controlling soil detachment, transport and deposition at a range of spatial and temporal scales. This knowledge has high relevance when developing measurement and modelling techniques, and suggesting conservation strategies to farmers, land managers and policy makers.

This session will discuss the most recent scientific developments in soil erosion sciences and closely associated land degradation processes in agriculture, forest and rangelands. Spanning across multiple disciplines, this session will naturally integrate all driving forces of erosion (hydrological, aeolian, mechanical) focussing on water, wind, tillage and harvest (SLCH) erosion as well as the numerous anthropogenic factors which interact with these processes.

The following topics will form the areas of presentation and discussion:

• Measurements - by means of field studies or laboratory experiments (e.g. from interrill to gully erosion).

• Monitoring - short to long-term assessments, by means of local assessments or remote sensing techniques.

• Modelling approaches – innovative simulation techniques from plot to global scale, addressing current and future land condition and climate change drivers.

• Mitigation and restoration – to address on-site and off-site impacts on soils and water.

Our objective is to discuss soil erosion processes and their impacts, while exploring strategies which support stakeholders (farmers, land managers or policy makers) and ongoing initiatives such as the Soil Monitoring Law in the European Union, the target of land degradation neutrality by 2030, and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030).

Soil erosion is one of the main processes leading to land degradation in many locations worldwide. Soil erosion has numerous in-site and out-side impacts affecting ecosystem services and human well-being. In an era marked by increasing global challenges (i.e. land use and climate changes), the need to understand soil erosion dynamics and for effective soil conservation strategies has never been more critical. However, there is a still a long-standing scientific debate on the extent to what human-derived land use change (i.e., deforestation, opening new agricultural areas, mining activities, urbanization, etc.) or climate change in causing soil erosion. This session aims to address innovative approaches for soil erosion assessment and effective soil conservation practices used worldwide. We welcome research including experimental and modelling studies addressing the following subjects:
- Explore the fundamental processes of soil erosion and the contributing factors, including natural forces and human activities;
- Use of technological innovations for monitoring soil erosion;
- Investigating the impact of changing climate patterns on soil erosion and the uncertainties involved;
- Innovative and sustainable soil conservation techniques and practices that can mitigate the effects of soil erosion;
- Present case studies from different regions and environments, highlighting successful soil conservation projects and initiatives;
- Collaborative approaches to develop integrated strategies for soil conservation;
- Discuss the role of policies and regulations in promoting soil conservation and sustainable land management.

Soil-erosion models are increasingly popular within the scientific community. These models are often easy to use and enjoy a good reputation with stakeholders and policymakers. In particular, the new EU ‘soil deal for Europe’ is expected to be largely influenced by soil-erosion models and their estimates of how erosion can affect soil health. However, there is a dissonance between what we hope to achieve from modelling and (i) our knowledge of the conceptual and empirical limitations of soil-erosion models, and (ii) our inability to ascertain confidence in model predictions based on empirical measurements that are compatible with model structures. This dissonance has led to a reliability crisis that, left unchecked, risks eroding the credibility of the research field.
This session will foster a discussion on the way out of the reliability crisis by rethinking current challenges in erosion modelling and proposing alternatives to push the science forward. As such, we welcome a wide range of contributions, from critical perspectives to applied research. Specifically, we encourage contributions dealing with:
(i) new approaches to modelling soil erosion
(ii) novel approaches to collecting soil-erosion data
(iii) the use of novel field and/or remote sensing techniques to improve model parameterisation and evaluation
(iv) new or improved methods for model calibration and model testing – particularly approaches that increase model falsifiability and/or that report case studies of model invalidation (if you have “bad” results, we want to hear about it!)
(v) uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis
(vi) the use of erosion models to develop and test hypotheses about soil systems
(vii) translating (uncertain) modelled erosion rates into risk assessments for policymakers
In addition, we expressly encourage contributions that provide critical yet constructive perspectives on soil-erosion modelling and that will enrich the session discussion. We also welcome interdisciplinary contributions bridging the gap between mathematical modelling, sociology and philosophy of science, and policy making.

Drainage of peatlands both causes the loss of biodiversity and high greenhouse gas emissions. Peatland restoration for conservation purposes has been implemented for decades now, but recently the focus has been shifting towards a reconciliation of the production of biomass with ecological goals, especially the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while peatland management in conservation-focussed projects increasingly has to be adapted to climate change. 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.

The human impact on peatlands is not limited to the direct effects of drainage. For centuries peatlands have been recording humanity's toxic legacy. Pollutants, such as toxic metals and metalloids, hydrocarbons, or emerging contaminants, often accumulate in peatlands, resulting in elevated pollutant levels relative to mineral soil ecosystems. This might impact both critical peatland functions, such as carbon cycling, ecohydrology, or vegetation/microbial communities and the wider landscape the peatlands are situated within. Thus, our session will feature a special section on polluted peatlands, including their management.

We invite studies addressing all types of peatland management and their impacts on GHG exchange, ecosystem services and biodiversity. Work on all spatial scales from laboratory to national level addressing biogeochemical and biological aspects as well as experimental and modelling studies are welcome. Furthermore, we invite contributions addressing policy coherence and identifying policy instruments for initiating and implementing new management practices on organic soils. Implementation and efficiency of management practices depends not only on hydrogeology and climate but also on other regional factors. Therefore, we hope to host contributions from different geographical regions where peatlands are important including boreal, temperate and tropical peatlands.

Knowledge of the global distribution and character of soils is fundamental to our ability to effectively manage land resources and to interpret them as proxy archives in the evolution of landscapes. Such knowledge is obtained through systematic study of the spatiotemporal relationships of soils across the landscape and the mechanisms or processes responsible for their development. This session is dedicated to the advancement in our knowledge or understanding of emerging concepts in the fields of pedology, paleopedology, and/or soil geography. We welcome contributions from any geographic region, method of study, and conceptual approach. We particularly encourage submissions from ECS dedicated to fostering continued research in these fields.

The Quaternary Period (last 2.6 million years) is characterized by frequent and abrupt climate swings and rapid environmental change. Studying these changes requires accurate and precise dating methods that can be effectively applied to environmental archives. Different methods or a combination of various dating techniques can be used depending on the archive, time range, and research question. Varve counting and dendrochronology allow for the construction of high-resolution chronologies. In contrast, radiometric methods (radiocarbon, cosmogenic in-situ, U-Th) and luminescence dating provide independent anchors for chronologies that span longer timescales. We particularly welcome contributions 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, e.g., Bayesian age-depth modeling. Applications may aim to understand long-term landscape evolution, quantify rates of geomorphological processes, or provide chronologies for records of climate change and anthropogenic effects on Earth's system.

Currently drylands are home to >40% of the world’s population, and many prehistoric and historic cultures developed in these regions. Drylands are characterized by limited water resources and are highly sensitive towards both human activities and extreme events such as droughts and floods, which affects regional water balances and geomorphic processes. Due to currently intensified climatic and human pressure such processes strongly intensified during the last decades, affecting the living conditions of local populations including freshwater availability from groundwater resources and water quality. However, the functioning of these processes and their feedbacks are poorly understood. To build up reliable future scenarios to achieve sustainable development goals in the future these processes and feedbacks need to be addressed in an interdisciplinary manner on timescales ranging from the Quaternary until today, as well as in future climate scenarios.
This session pools contributions dealing with past to future hydrometeorological, environmental and geomorphological processes understanding in drylands across a broad geographical range since the Quaternary studied on varied spatial and temporal scales. Besides case studies on individual regions and review studies, cross-disciplinary, methodical and conceptual contributions are especially welcome in this session.

Human activity became a major player of global climatic and environmental change in the course of the late Quaternary, during the Anthropocene. Consequently, it is crucial to understand these changes through the study of former human-environmental interactions at different spatial and temporal scales. Documenting the diversity of human responses and adaptations to climate, landscapes, ecosystems, natural disasters and the changing natural resources availability in different regions of our planet, provides valuable opportunities to learn from the past. To do so, cross-disciplinary studies in Geoarchaeology offer a chance to better understand the archaeological records and landscapes in context of human culture and the hydroclimate-environment nexus over time. This session seeks related interdisciplinary papers and specific geoarchaeological case-studies that deploy various approaches and tools to address the reconstruction of former human-environmental interactions from the Palaeolithic period through the modern. Topics related to records of the Anthropocene from Earth and archaeological science perspectives are welcome. Furthermore, contributions may include (but are not limited to) insights about how people have coped with environmental disasters or abrupt changes in the past; defining sustainability thresholds for farming or resource exploitation; distinguishing the baseline natural and human contributions to environmental changes. Ultimately, we would like to understand how strategies of human resilience and innovation can inform our modern policies for addressing the challenges of the emerging Anthropocene, a time frame dominated by human modulation of surface geomorphological processes and hydroclimate.

Soil, as a critical component of the terrestrial environment, hosts dynamic interactions between soil organisms and their environment that shape physical processes and drive biogeochemical cycles, soil structure and function. In biological hotspots such as the rhizosphere, interactions between roots, soil and associated microorganisms form gradients, shape microbial habitats and modulate fluxes across scales. Elucidating these interactions between biology and soil requires an understanding of the feedbacks between physical, chemical and biological processes at different spatial and temporal scales. Interdisciplinary research can elucidate the mechanisms behind adaptive changes in soils and extrapolate these findings to broader contexts, thereby advancing our understanding of soil as a complex, dynamic system.
This session welcomes experimental and modelling studies that address mechanisms and feedbacks that control physical and chemical processes at the life-soil interface. Topics include, but are not limited to, functional biodiversity, bioturbation, microbial activity, root-soil interactions, biological soil crusts, and virus dispersal.

Soil microbial communities are central drivers of carbon and nutrient cycling, shaping biogeochemical processes and influencing terrestrial ecosystems’ responses to Global change. However, the integration of microbial functions into biogeochemical processes often relies on simplified assumptions of cell physiology, lacking insights into actual growth dynamics and interactions within microbial groups. Building a better understanding of how microbial communities, activity and physiology respond to diverse aspects of Global change (e.g., warming, drought, land management) is crucial to predict biogeochemical processes across temporal and spatial scales.

In this session we present research exploring microbial dynamics from individuals to complex communities with a focus on their impact on soil carbon and nutrient cycling. Contributions provide a broad overview on latest developments in the field of soil microbial ecology, ranging from studies under controlled conditions with microbial isolates, to assessments of soils from various ecosystems using advanced analytical tools (e.g. -omics, microscopy, spectroscopy or isotope labeling). We present empirical and theoretical studies that investigate the resistance, resilience, and adaptation of soil microbial community structure, activity, and function, in response to single and multi-factorial climatic disturbances and research on the interactions between soil microorganisms, plants and fauna.

Focusing on valorization within a circular economy approach, converting biomass residues into high-value-added products offers substantial environmental and socioeconomic benefits, making it a subject of considerable scientific interest. The use of organic amendments (OAs) has emerged as a pivotal component in the advancement of sustainable agriculture, owing to their multifaceted contributions to soil health, crop productivity, microbial activity, biodiversity, and the preservation of natural resources. OAs include a wide variety of materials, such as manure, pruning remains, compost, chars (such as pyrochar, biochar, and hydrochar), and other forms of pretreated biomass. Despite the growing interest in these potential agricultural practices, the study of their physical and chemical properties, as well as their potential impact on the soil-plant-microorganism system, requires further investigation by the scientific community.
Researchers interested in these topics are cordially invited to participate, and we especially encourage contributions in the following domains:
• Production, characterization, and valorization of new materials with potential use as soil amendments
• Study of the impact of OAs and other sustainable practices on soil microbial quality and/or quantity
• Effects of OAs on plant growth, production, and productivity
• Impact of amendments on the soil-plant-microorganism system as an interconnected whole, addressing results at both the local and holistic levels
• Research on agricultural and environmental applications

Soils host by far most biodiversity on our planet. This soil biodiversity is essential for other life forms on Earth: plants as holobionts utterly depend on soil microbes to thrive, while other soil organisms drive nutrient cycles from micro to global scales.. Not surprisingly, soil biodiversity has become a ‘hot topic’ in science, as shown in a disproportional rise in often high-quality publications, and also has been raising political interest such as shown by the EU soil monitoring law. We now increasingly understand the diversity, composition and even functional profiles of many taxa in soils. Still, there are many frontiers waiting to be encountered in the field of soil biodiversity.
In this session, we aim to highlight these frontiers to eventually guide future efforts in soil biodiversity studies. We specifically welcome soil biodiversity-linked submissions on theoretical concepts, new methods and approaches, major new insights, but also insights obtained from links with other fields and future visions on the most promising avenues that is foreseen in the soil biodiversity research.

Soil organisms are the principal actors in key soil functions that underlie ecosystem services such as primary productivity, nutrient cycling, and carbon transformations. Linking soil community characteristics to soil and ecosystem functioning holds great promise for guiding conservation efforts in natural systems and supporting sustainable agriculture. Characterizing soil microbial communities requires a wide focus: growth and anabolism rely on carbon, energy and nutrients (e.g., N and P) in appropriate stoichiometric relationships, but also depend on who is where (biodiversity), who does what (activity and function), and how microbial death processes create necromass for subsequent transformation (elemental cycles). Various sources of organic matter provide raw materials, which are converted into new cellular growth, microbial storage compounds, microbial products or greenhouse gases such as CO2. This session integrates empirical and modelling insights to elucidate the energy and matter flows driven by soil microbial metabolism and biodiversity reflected in functional ecological processes in both natural and agricultural studies.

We aim to stimulate interdisciplinary discussions to advance our understanding of soil biology at different scales, from the mechanistic understanding of biogeochemical processes to ecosystem functioning.

We are excited to have Stefano Manzoni (Stockholm University) as an invited speaker for the session.

Soil Health is the capacity of soil to function as an ecosystem, providing means to sustain biological productivity and thus to maintain environmental quality. However, alone in the EU 70% of the soils are in a bad shape, as soil health is negatively impacted by both global change factors (warming, extreme weather events, elevated CO2 levels, droughts, floods, etc.) and human impact (intensive agriculture, land-use change, technogenic events, etc.). Initial modification to the physical and chemical soil properties can have dramatic effects on soil biota, which is an important driver of ecosystem services.
We invite contributions from field, laboratory and modeling studies focused on soil health descriptors, such as microbial respiration, enzyme activities, diversity and functions of soil (micro)organisms and other soil biological parameters affected by global change and human activities. This session welcomes contributions on soil health assessment methods, with a focus on biological soil fertility and the ecosystem services provided by soils. We particularly encourage abstracts that explore soil health across scales, from micro-level to global perspectives.

The interactions between plants and the environment play a prominent role in terrestrial fluxes and biochemical cycles. However, we still lack detailed knowledge of how these interactions impact plant growth and plant access to soil resources, particularly under deficient conditions. The main challenge arises from the complexity inherent to both soil and plants. To address these knowledge gaps, an improved understanding of plant-related transfer processes is needed.

Experimental techniques such as non-invasive imaging and three-dimensional root system modeling tools have deepened our insights into the functioning of water and solute transport processes in the soil-plant system. Quantitative approaches that integrate across disciplines and scales constitute stepping-stones to foster our understanding of fundamental biophysical processes at the interface between soil and plants.

This session targets research investigating plant-related resource transfer processes across different scales (from the rhizosphere to the global scale) and welcomes scientists from multiple disciplines encompassing the soil and plant sciences. We are specifically inviting contributions on the following topics:

- Identification of plant strategies to better access and use resources from the soil, including under abiotic stress(es)
- Bridging the gap between biologically and physically oriented research in soil and plant sciences
- Measuring and modeling of soil-plant hydraulics, water and solute fluxes through the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum across scales.
- Novel experimental and modeling techniques assessing below-ground plant status and processes such as root biomass, root growth, root water and nutrient uptake, root exudation, microbial interactions, and soil aggregation
- Mechanistic understanding of drought impact on transpiration and photosynthesis and their predictions by earth system models

The last two decades have seen unprecedented progress in our understanding of the plant-soil-microbe continuum in the Arctic, however some aspects remain understudied. In recent years, it has become clear that non-growing season processes are critical in understanding year-round ecosystem and soil functioning, biogeochemical feedbacks and greenhouse gas budgets. Likewise, biotic interactions across and among various groups of soil organisms may play an underestimated role in ecosystem functioning. Both winter processes and soil biotic interactions are strongly affected by climate warming, with wide-reaching changes in the amount and phase of winter precipitation or northwards migration of hitherto absent soil ecosystem engineers. Understanding these ongoing changes is crucial to predict their future impacts on Arctic ecosystems and global biogeochemical cycles.

In this interdisciplinary session, focused on Arctic and boreal environments, we gather the latest developments in understanding the atmosphere-snow-plant-soil-microbe continuum. Our selected contributions explore how changes in the snowpack and increasing temperatures affect plants and soil organisms with a focus on resulting effects on biogeochemical cycling. This is approached across spatial scales, from earth system models to plot-level measurements, from field experiments to in vitro incubations, and even down to cells and genomes. Traditional plant and soil ecology methods as well as innovative stable isotope approaches provide insights into the mechanisms and seasonality of plant and microbial activity, priming effects, carbon exchange and nutrient cycling. Molecular methods, including environmental DNA, propose to document distribution and seasonal patterns of bacteria, micro-eukaryotes or soil fauna, and envision the modalities and impacts of their future changes. Bringing together cross-season and cross-taxa perspectives, this session will engage interdisciplinary discussions to jointly explore unknowns of Arctic terrestrial ecosystem functioning.

Mycorrhizal fungi are central to the functioning of forest ecosystems, playing a critical role in ecological processes such as nutrient cycling and carbon storage. Mycorrhizal fungi enhance nutrient uptake by trees, forest productivity, influence decomposition, and they contribute to organic matter accumulation. This session aims to bring together research investigating the diverse roles and functions of mycorrhizal fungi in forest ecosystems, with a focus on ectomycorrhizal, arbuscular, and ericoid mycorrhizal associations. We will explore how mycorrhizal fungi drive ecosystem functioning in its broadest sense, and how these processes respond to environmental changes, from climate change to forest management. We welcome contributions from research conducted across various forest biomes and scales, ranging from the global to petri dish scale, encompassing observational, experimental, and modeling approaches. By fostering discussion and sharing cutting-edge research, this session aims to deepen our understanding of mycorrhizal fungi in forest ecosystems, clarify their ecological importance, and highlight the need for continued exploration in this rapidly evolving field.

Environmental change affects the dynamic feedbacks among plants, soil, and microbial communities, and thus strongly influences terrestrial biogeochemical cycling. In this session we address the question: What is the impact of changing environmental conditions on the plant-microbe-soil system, and what are the resulting effects on soil biogeochemistry?

We invite contributions from manipulative field experiments, observations in natural environmental gradients, and modeling studies that explore the environmental change impacts on plant-soil interactions, biogeochemical cycling of C, N, P, microbial diversity and decomposition processes, and deep-soil biogeochemistry. Submissions that adopt novel approaches, e.g. molecular, isotopic, or synthesize outputs from large-scale, field experiments focusing on plant-soil-microbe feedbacks to warming, wetting, drying and thawing are very welcome.

This is the continuation of our 2023 and 2024 successful session on the same topic and focus. We would like to continue bringing people together with this session in order to learn from each other’s studies on soils and environmental change from a global range of pedogenic and environmental settings.

Soils represent a major terrestrial store of both organic and inorganic carbon. At present soils are a net carbon sink, and building soil carbon stocks holds a potential to contribute to achieving net zero carbon. Furthermore, the accrual, stability, and cycling of carbon is fundamental to the productivity and resilience of soil systems, and preserving or even increasing soil carbon stocks is critical for allowing sustainable agricultural crop production.

Avenues for organic carbon sequestration in soils include plant-based inputs, the addition of pyrogenic carbon (biochar), and addition of composts or other additives such as manures and soil conditioners provided additionality and leakage effects are considered. Enhanced silicate weathering may hold significant potential for building up inorganic carbon stocks, while inputs from bedrock, and mediation by land use changes such as afforestation, may also increase inorganic soil carbon stocks.

This session seeks to explore how soil carbon stocks can be increased so as to simultaneously enhance agricultural productivity, mitigate negative repercussions of changing environmental conditions, and contribute to achieving carbon neutrality. Alongside this, advances in methods for monitoring and modelling rates of soil carbon loss or carbon sequestration in soils are key to inform political, agronomical, and geo-engineering approaches. We welcome contributions exploring methods of increasing both organic and inorganic carbon stocks, and studies exploring the storage, stability, and cycling of carbon within soil systems. Early career researchers are strongly encouraged to apply, and we seek submissions considering empirical, modelling, or meta-analytical approaches.

Soils, sediments, and their connected biogeochemical processes exhibit significant heterogeneity over multiple scales across space and time. Despite this, the extent to which small-scale biogeochemical “anomalies” influence the fate of various elemental cycles remains poorly understood. This session will explore the influence of heterogeneous soil biogeochemical processes on soil organic and inorganic carbon (SOC & SIC), nutrient cycling, contaminant mobility, organo-mineral and organo-metal interactions. Contributions will investigate how small-scale processes (e.g., rhizosphere dynamics, organo-mineral or organo-metal interactions, etc.) can influence larger-scale elemental cycles across a wide range of pedoclimatic conditions. We welcome research employing innovative field, laboratory, modeling, and spectroscopic approaches to disentangle these complex processes and provide novel insights into heterogeneous soil biogeochemical processes. This session aims to enhance our mechanistic understanding of biogeochemical processes involving soil carbon, nutrients, contaminants, minerals at different weathering stages, and metal species, across scales in all pedoclimatic settings and ecosystems.

While many trace metal(loid)s (e.g., Zn, Cu, Fe) are essential for plants and humans, they can harm soil fertility or reduce yields at high concentrations. Other metal(loid)s are non-essential but can be readily transferred from soils via crops into the food chain and threaten human health (e.g., As, Cd, Hg, Sb). To understand the behavior, fate and effects of essential and non-essential metal(loid)s in soils and plants, it is crucial to quantify their fluxes and to identify the biogeochemical processes that control their mobility. This session aims to spotlight i) the latest advancements in methodologies, including elemental, isotopic, spectroscopic, microbial profiling, and imaging techniques to investigate the biogeochemical processes that govern metal(loid) mobility in soil-plant systems; ii) studies that offer novel insights into the fate of metal(loid)s in distinct soils, plants, and holistic soil-plant systems. We welcome contributions that include fundamental and applied research based on laboratory work, soil incubation experiments, greenhouse experiments, field experiments, and/or modeling approaches. This session also encourages research investigating the potential effects of ongoing and future global changes, such as climate change and healthy food production. Additionally, we seek studies proposing solutions to deal with metal(loid) excess (e.g., phytoremediation) and limited trace metal(loid) supply for crops (e.g., fertilization, plant breeding).

Soil organic carbon (SOC) underpins soil function, influencing agricultural productivity, ecosystem resilience, and biogeochemical cycles. Understanding SOC dynamics is essential for addressing global challenges such as climate change, land-use change, and sustainable land management.
This session examines advancements in the measurement, modelling, and prediction of SOC dynamics across spatial and temporal scales, with a focus on its interactions with ecological processes. Central to this is the scientific understanding enabled by next-generation soil carbon systems, which provide deeper insights into SOC dynamics, their ecological interactions, and responses to environmental change in both agricultural and natural systems.
Key topics include strategies to enhance SOC sequestration, the roles of plant selection and soil microbial communities in promoting long-term SOC accrual, and the integration of experimental, observational, mapping and modelling approaches to improve predictions of SOC responses to changing environmental conditions. Moreover, critical reflections on the potentials of SOC sequestration in science and policy are invited.
By bringing together diverse perspectives, this session aims to advance our understanding of SOC's role in ecosystem sustainability and resilience, fostering actionable insights for addressing global challenges.

Soil is an essential non-renewable resource that provides food for society and supports ecosystems. Almost 50% of European soils are used for agricultural activities. Moreover, in the current context of frequent extreme weather events, soils are more vulnerable to higher erosion rates and lixiviation phenomena. It is therefore crucial to implement sustainable practices that can help mitigate climate change while maintaining soil fertility in the long term. Appropriate land management plays a key role in ensuring good long-term soil health. This has a direct impact on the soil, not only affecting soil organic matter (SOM) content, soil organic carbon (SOC) storage and associated microbial communities, but also altering soil structure and soil respiration rates.
The proposed session aims to increase our knowledge of how land management practices affect soil properties and biogeochemical processes by bringing together reports of laboratory and field work investigating (1) the impact of land management on soil structure, (2) the chemical and biological responses of SOM to above-ground practices, (3) changes in SOC content under different agricultural practices, (4) the effect of crop diversification on soil quality, and (5) studies analysing the response of soil microbial communities to agricultural management.

The cycling of carbon (C) and key nutrients, such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), in soils is crucial for maintaining ecosystem health, agricultural productivity, and climate regulation. As global challenges, such as climate change, soil degradation, and nutrient imbalances intensify, there is a rising demand for improving our conceptual understanding and developing advanced analytical methods to unravel the complexities of these biogeochemical cycles.
Conceptually, soil organic matter is currently being separated into particulate and mineral bound organic matter (POM, MAOM) due to their distinct formation, composition, stability, and respective drivers. However, several aspects of MAOM are still either not fully understood or actively debated. This applies to the roles of microorganisms in the formation and breakdown of MAOM under changing environmental conditions and the relative accumulation of plant versus microbial-derived carbon on mineral surfaces. Furthermore, the response of MAOM to global change and hence potential of soils to store carbon storage remains uncertain.
Addressing these knowledge gaps requires innovative experimental approaches as well as the application of cutting-edge methods such as stable isotope techniques, high-resolution spectroscopy, and molecular-level analyses. This session brings together contributions from researchers at the forefront of employing or developing novel tools to decipher C, N, and P cycling in soils with special focus on their control by the formation and stability of MAOM.

The biogeochemical cycling of carbon (C), nutrients (N, P, S), and pyrogenic organic matter (PyOM) in soils and their linkage and retention are recognized as major challenges, especially under shifts in environmental factors (warming, drought, fire, N deposition, overfertilization, salinization, alterations of landscapes, biodiversity loss, invasion of species and intensification of land use). The processes underlying their cycling in soils are complex to evaluate and separate since multiple factors can shift process rates and directions and determine pool sizes. Factors also frequently have an interactive effect. Estimating the magnitude of C, nutrient, and PyOM pool response and the temporal scale of reactions to land use change or shifts of environmental factors remains a significant challenge. Thus, this session invites contributions focused on evaluating the soil C, N, P, and S pools and process responses under global change scenarios at the local and large scales. This session also invites contributions focusing on PyOM dynamics and its interaction with the nutrient cycle in natural and managed (e.g., biochar) systems. Studies that combine short-term laboratory observation focused on process rate estimation with long-term field experiments and evaluation of pools or new methods to do so are highly welcome. Studies that focus on the effect of soil chemistry, including an application of isotopes to investigate the process rates, mineralogy, and the transition from conventional to organic agriculture/land restoration, as well as others.

Anthropogenic disturbance of the global nitrogen (N) cycle has more than doubled the amount of reactive N circulating in the terrestrial biosphere alone. Exchange of reactive/non-reactive nitrogen gases between land and atmosphere including reactive N deposition on ecosystems are strongly affecting Earth’s atmospheric composition, air quality, global warming, climate change, human health and biodiversity. This session seeks to improve our understanding of a) how intensification of reactive N use, land management and climate change affects the pools and fluxes of nitrogen in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, b) and how reactive N enrichment of land and water will affect the future carbon sink of natural ecosystems as well as atmospheric exchanges of reactive (NO, N2O, NH3, HONO, NO2 and non-reactive N (N2) gases with implications for global warming, climate change and air quality, and c) how fluxes, in particular N deposition, can be quantified with the necessary accuracy to be used in nature protection policies as well as emission regulation and mitigation strategies. We welcome contributions covering a wide range of experimental and modelling studies, which covers microbes-mediated and physico-chemical transformations and transport of nitrogen across the land-water-air continuum in natural ecosystems from local to regional and global scales. Furthermore, the interactions of nitrogen with other elemental cycles (e.g. phosphorus, carbon) and the impacts of these interactive feedbacks for soil health, biodiversity and water and air quality will be explored in this session. Latest developments in methodological innovations and observational and experimental approaches for unravelling the complexities of nitrogen transformations and transport will also be of interest. This session will be celebrating its 10th anniversary for nitrogen science and cycling at the EGU2025.

Phosphorus (P) is an essential element for life on Earth and is tightly cycled within the biosphere. Throughout geological history, P availability has regulated biological productivity with impacts on the global carbon cycle. Today, human activities are significantly changing the natural cycling of P. Phosphate mining threatens P reserves, while increased inputs of P to terrestrial ecosystems have enhanced fluxes of P to lakes and the oceans.

Direct anthropogenic perturbations of the P cycle, coupled with other human-induced stresses, have impacted numerous environments. Forest ecosystems may be losing their ability to recycle P efficiently, due to excessive N input, extensive biomass removal, and climatic stress. Soils, which serve as the biogeochemical fulcrum of the terrestrial P cycle, have been greatly altered by fertilizer use in recent decades. Changes in the P cycle on land impact the magnitude and timing of P fluxes into aquatic ecosystems, influencing their trophic state. Burial in sediments returns P to the geological reservoir, eventually forming economically viable P deposits. Throughout the P cycle, redox conditions play a key role in transformations and mobility of P. Climate change and its mitigation affect and will further disrupt global P cycles. For example, the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere through an increase in global soil organic carbon stocks implies P sequestration.

This interdisciplinary session invites contributions to the study of P from all disciplines, and aims to foster collaborations links between researchers working on different aspects of the P cycle. We target a balanced session giving equal weight across the continuum of environments in the P cycle, from agriculture, forests, soils and groundwater, through lakes, rivers and estuaries, to oceans, marine sediments and geological P deposits. We welcome both empirical and modeling studies.

Dissolved and particulate organic carbon (DOM, POM) are key components of the global carbon cycle and are important as potential sources of CO2 and CH4, and for the long-term preservation of carbon stabilized in subsoils and sediments. DOM and POM are important 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, and their interactions, 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 the stoichiometry of its constituents (i.e., C, N, P, S) in soils, lakes, rivers, and the ocean as well as the impact of land use change and climatic change on these processes. For example, when assessing carbon dynamics across the terrestrial-aquatic continuum, it is important to recognize the key role of peatlands and peat restoration efforts as sources of organic matter for streams and rivers, as well as the contribution of mineral soil horizons to C fluxes at the catchment scale. Contributions addressing lateral fluxes of sediment and carbon induced by soil erosion or permafrost thaw are also welcome. 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).

The interplay between natural organic matter (NOM) including organic contaminants and decomposer communities at the nexus of solids, solutes and volatiles regulates a C reservoir larger than all living biomass on Earth, making it a keystone in the global carbon cycle. Despite its ubiquitousness, NOM remains a black box due to its astonishing molecular complexity. Advances in ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS, Orbitrap, TOF-MS) have enabled researchers to analyze NOM and contaminants in all forms - solid, soluble and volatile - on the molecular-level. Ultimately, this allows to resolve the molecular complexity of NOM, and to elucidate its mediating role in various processes essential for life on Earth, such as energy flow, nutrient retention and resupply, or climate stability.

The challenge ahead of us is to synthesize the gained knowledge from various research communities (biogeochemistry, soil sciences, atmospheric sciences, aquatic sciences, analytical chemistry, geomicrobiology), ultimately providing useful data and process understanding to integrate in C cycle models that represent its molecular complexity in a more realistic way. To achieve this, it is also required to develop computational methods to align FT-ICR-MS data with complementary spectroscopic and mass spectrometric techniques (NMR, FT-IR, XPS, py-GC-MS, EEMs-PARAFAC, PTR-MS, etc.) and allow for a community-driven effort to share, curate and compare global molecular-level datasets.

In this session we therefore welcome proceedings in the following domains:
- Experimental, e.g. focusing on single or combined processes of natural and anthropogenic organic matter biogeochemistry or its links with other drivers such as microbial communities,
- Field-scale, e.g. studying the behavior of NOM across environmental gradients or interfaces,
- Modeling and simulation, e.g. integrating molecular-level data to improve the prediction of environmental processes or simulate ecosystem functioning,
- Computational, e.g. bioinformatic approaches to facilitate the analysis of molecular-level NOM data, or allowing its integration with complementary data streams,
- Analytical, e.g. improving or expanding the measurement of NOM on the molecular level, or providing novel tools to reveal its properties, responses or effects

We are looking forward to bringing together researchers from a wide range of disciplines to share their perspectives on studying NOM at EGU25!

The study of nitrogen (N) processes in soils has a long and distinguished history. Recent research efforts have targeted the direct quantification of N turnover in the soil plant atmosphere system across scales. Nevertheless, methodological constraints, the high spatial and temporal variability of soil N transformation, and the multitude of interacting factors determining N availability and loss from soils presents significant challenges that make accurate quantification difficult, thereby limiting our quantitative understanding of the N turnover.
Although the factors controlling N turnover in soils are relatively well established under laboratory conditions, transposing these relationships to the field and landscape scales remains a significant challenge. The absence of data-sets collected in-situ impedes the validation of N processes, such as mineralization and denitrification simulated via process-based models, thereby rendering their results at field and regional scales highly uncertain. However, current ecosystem management challenges require accurate predictions of N fate to enable sustainable management that minimizes environmental losses.

We invite contributions from the following fields:
• Methodological advances in measuring and modelling of soil N processes, spanning from the micro- to the landscape scale;
• Measurements of N fluxes including specific loss pathways under field or field-like conditions with a focus on identifying controlling factors;
• Comparative studies demonstrating/evaluating novel approaches to constrain N turnover such as incubation under He/O2 atmosphere, 15N-tracer technique, N2O isotopologue approaches or other innovative methods;
• Process-based modelling of soil N processes at various scales;
• Linking nitrogen transformation rates to the function and structure of the soil microbial community.

Geodynamic and tectonic processes are the key engines in shaping the structural, thermal and petrological configuration of the crust and lithosphere. In the course, they constantly modify the thermal, hydraulic and mechanical properties of the rock record, ultimately leading to a heterogenous endowment of (often co-located) subsurface resources.
Supporting the transition to sustainable low-carbon economies at scale poses significant challenges and opportunities for the global geoscience community. An integrated and interdisciplinary understanding of the subsurface processes that can provide access to alternative energy supplies and critical raw materials is lacking, as are unifying science-backed exploration strategies and resource assessment workflows.
This session aims to improve our scientific understanding of the pathways and interdependencies that lead to the concentration of economic quantities of energy carriers or noble gases, mineral resources, and sufficient geothermal gradients. Further, it also focuses on providing input for exploration decision-making, the engineering of access strategies to the policy makers as well as for the strategic planning of collaborative research initiatives.
In particular, we invite studies on observational data analysis, instrumentation, numerical modeling, laboratory experiments, and geological engineering, with an emphasis on integrated approaches/datasets which address the geological history of such systems as well as their spatial characteristics for sub-topics such as:
- Geothermal systems: key challenges in successfully exploiting geothermal energy are related to observational gaps in lithological heterogeneities and tectonic (fault) structures and sweet-spotting zones of sufficient permeability for fluid extraction.
- Geological (white/natural) hydrogen and helium resources: potential of source rocks, conversion kinetics, migration and possible accumulation processes through geological time, along with detection, characterisation, and quantification of sources, fluxes, shallow subsurface interactions and surface leakage of hydrogen (H2) and Helium (He).
- Ore deposits: To meet the growing global demand for metal resources, new methods are required to discover new ore deposits and assess the spatio-temporal and geodynamic characteristics of favourable conditions to generate metallogenic deposits, transport pathways, and host sequences.

Soil structure and its stability determine soil physical functions and chemical properties such as water retention, hydraulic conductivity, macropore flow, matter transport, nutrient leaching, redox potentials, and susceptibility to erosion. These soil physical and chemical characteristics are fundamental for biological processes, such as root penetration, organic matter and nutrient dynamics. The soil pore network determines soil aeration, and to a large part the soil hydrological regime and forms the habitat for soil biota, which in turn actively reshape the soil pore network. Soil biota, root growth, land management practices and abiotic drivers lead to a constant evolution of the arrangement of pores, minerals and organic matter. Thus, soil functions and properties are always changing. The importance of the interaction between soil structure on one side and soil biology, climate and soil management on the other, is highlighted by recent research outcomes. Understanding the mechanisms and factors controlling soil functions is a prerequisite for climate smart farming systems. Among others, this influences the yield potential and yield security as well as the resilience to extreme weather events due to climate change.
Anthropogenic soil compaction is one of the main soil degradation processes in agriculture and forestry worldwide, which can lead to a long-term loss of soil structure. Steadily increasing weight of machinery and their intensive use increase the risk of harmful soil compaction, especially under unfavourable soil conditions. The effects of soil compaction on soil structure and processes, especially in deeper layers are often almost invisible, while recovery of soil structure of those layers is a grand challenge.
In this session, we invite contributions on the formation and alteration of soil structure and its associated soil functions at all spatial and temporal scales. Special focus lies on feedbacks between soil structure dynamics and soil biology as well as the impact of mechanical stress exerted by heavy vehicles deployed under land management operations. Further, we encourage submissions that integrate complementary measurement techniques, aim at bridging different scales or study solutions for reducing soil compaction and improving soil structure.
We are happy to announce that Nick Jarvis will give a presentation as solicited speaker titled "An exploratory model of soil structure dynamics: concepts, scope and initial applications."

Multiphase flows play a central role in a broad range of natural and engineered processes, such as nutrient cycles and contaminant remediation in soils, and geological storage of carbon dioxide and hydrogen in deep reservoirs. Understanding multiphase systems across scales is therefore fundamental for water resources management as well energy and climate concerns.

The presence of multiple fluid phases enhances heterogeneity at the level of flow, mixing, and reaction in structurally heterogeneous media. This impacts the transport of dissolved substances and fundamentally changes mixing patterns and effective reaction rates, posing major challenges for predictive modeling. Recent theoretical and experimental advances provide unprecedented insights into the pore-scale mechanisms governing these processes and open new opportunities to tackle these challenges.

This session aims to bring together researchers working on fundamental and applied aspects of flow, transport, mixing, and reaction in multi-phase systems across scales. In particular, we encourage submissions relating to experimental, numerical, and theoretical contributions pertaining to the following topics:

- Impact of medium heterogeneity on multiphase flow, from the pore to the continuum scale.
- Impact of multiphase flow patterns on mixing and reaction rates across scales in heterogeneous media.
- Biogeochemical processes in multiphase systems.
- Applications to vadose zone hydrology and geological storage.

The Critical Zone (CZ), the Earth's outer layer extending from the top of the vegetation canopy to the bottom of circulating groundwater, is essential for sustaining life, supporting ecosystems, and maintaining environmental health. Understanding this complex system requires collaborative, multidisciplinary approaches that integrate diverse perspectives and innovative methodologies, involving observations, modelling, and integration of the two. This session will highlight advances in understanding the interplay between soils, hydrology, and biogeochemical cycling, as well as the complex interactions between groundwater flow and other CZ components at different spatial scales. Drawing on data from established CZ observatories and networks, it will illustrate how diverse climates, geological settings, vegetation, and land-use practices influence groundwater processes and CZ evolution. Particular emphasis will be placed on the value of international collaboration and the importance of understanding how rapid surface processes interact with the slower dynamics of groundwater to collectively shape the CZ over time. Discussions will also address the potential impacts of climate change, extreme weather events, and wildfires on groundwater recharge, discharge patterns, and water quality. The overall goal is to enhance appreciation of collaborative research approaches and emphasise groundwater’s central role in CZ functioning.

Observing soil moisture at the ground is essential to assess plant available water, manage water resources and calibrate, validate satellite products and conduct climate impact studies. Unfortunately, the availability of in situ observations is very limited in space and time. Whereas the spatial distribution is biased towards the global North, the average temporal variability of soil moisture time series is on average 10 years as can be seen from the largest archive of in situ soil moisture, the International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN). Apart of the data availability issues, a substantial amount of the in situ observations face data quality issues that might result from sensor deployment, sensor calibration, data processing or other error sources.
This session is meant to address issues in the development and deployment of state-of-the-art soil moisture observation networks, the financing of its long-term operation, data quality assurance, as well as sensor deployment and assessments of differences between these deployments. We further encourage contributions presenting developments of novel measurement techniques including citizen science initiatives and studies utilizing in situ soil moisture for water availability assessments.

The proper management of blue and green water is vital for sustainable livelihoods and agricultural practices around the world. This is especially true in drylands, where any productive activity is deeply related to the understanding of soil hydrological behaviour, and irrigation is both a pillar of agroecosystems and a defence against desertification, but also in temperate or humid lands which can experience variations in the hydrological cycle and be prone to water scarcity due to climate change.
Improper practices, which are not able to cope with climate-induced variability and anomalies, may in fact contribute to soil degradation and depletion of the available water sources. For example, incorrect irrigation techniques may lead to soil and groundwater salinization, with dramatic fallout on agricultural productivity, while overgrazing may lead to exploitation of vegetation cover, soil compaction, and adverse effects on the soil capability of water buffering. On the other hand, the role of irrigation goes beyond the technological aspects: traditional irrigation is a cultural heritage, which is often structurally resilient, and which needs to be faced with an interdisciplinary approach involving humanities.

This session welcomes contributions with a specific focus on:
- The understanding of the soil hydrological behaviour and of the mass fluxes through the soil in drylands and environments under actual or projected stress conditions (e.g. water shortage, compaction, salinization)
- The interaction between irrigation and soil hydrology including deep drainage
- The analysis of the bio-geo-physical and social dynamics related to rainfed and irrigated agriculture in both arid and non-arid areas and oases, including the use of non-conventional waters (e.g. water harvesting), and managed aquifer recharge systems
- The management of rangeland areas, including their restoration

This session is co—sponsored by the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID, to be confirmed) and the International Center for Agriculture Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA, to be confirmed).

This session aims to bring together scientists working in the field of vadose zone hydrology across spatial scales ranging from the pore- to the catchment- and continental scale. Recent regional and continental-scale drought events and flood events urge the need for better understanding the role of vadose zone processes in the Earth system. The state of the vadose zone controls biogeochemical processes, nutrient and pollutant transport, catchment response functions, land-atmosphere exchange, and rainfall-runoff processes. In addition, the vadose zone as part of the critical zone provides important ecosystem services. Key research challenges include amongst others improving characterization of vadose zone properties, reducing uncertainty in quantifying vadose zone water fluxes including exchange with aquifers and surface waters and feedbacks within the soil-vegetation-atmosphere continuum. Guided by advanced sensor technologies, high-frequency observations and reanalysis, scientists are able to bridge scales and deduct processes at unprecedented resolutions for an in-depth more data-driven understanding of vadose zone processes.

In tandem with big data availability, new methods in machine learning and artificial intelligence may provide additional methodological capacity to understand the role of vadose zone, especially when tackling dynamic behavior of vadose zone properties as a result of changing frequency, duration and magnitude of drought and flood events.

We invite you to submit contributions from experimental, field and laboratory studies as well as synthetic and modeling studies from the pore to continental scales. Contributions to this session include soil hydrological processes, characterization of soil properties, soil biogeochemical processes, transport of pollutants, and studies on the soil-vegetation-atmosphere system. Presentations of novel, interdisciplinary approaches and techniques are also highly welcome.

Soil contamination is one of the main concerns of today's society. Contaminated soils result from various anthropic activities and soil management practices. Soil health and quality are affected by increased concentrations of potentially hazardous substances (e.g. metals/metalloids, radionuclides and organic compounds) together with other soil degradation factors commonly identified in contaminated areas (e.g. erosion, salinization, organic matter loss). As a result, geochemical and edaphic processes are disturbed, as are water quality, biodiversity, crop production and, consequently, the food chain. The spatial and temporal variability of soil contamination increases the complexity of its assessment and remediation.
Several materials and remediation techniques have been studied, mainly at the laboratory/greenhouse scale, but their success in the field may be limited. The management and remediation of contaminated soils pose significant environmental and socioeconomic challenges that require innovative, multidisciplinary approaches.
This session aims to present the most relevant advances: Soil health and mitigation of contaminating processes; Assessment and mapping of contaminated areas and their risk using classical techniques and digital tools and remote sensing; Evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of techniques and materials (technosols, biochar, nanoparticles and other organic and inorganic amendments) for soil remediation processes and their environmental applications; Modelling the behaviour of potentially hazardous substances and nutrients in contaminated and remediated soils and waters; Monitoring and environmental response of ecosystems after implementation of remediation programmes; Legal frameworks and limitations of remediation strategies.
We invite colleagues to present studies and establish new partnerships to develop multidisciplinary strategies that can contribute to the assessment and remediation of contaminated sites.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of man-made chemicals that have been extensively used worldwide for over 80 years due to their unique chemical properties, such as high stability and resistance to degradation. The widespread use of PFAS has led to pervasive contamination in terrestrial and aquatic environments, creating complex regulatory and environmental management challenges.

This session aims to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of PFAS pollution and to share effective strategies for their management and remediation/mitigation. Hence, we aim to bring together researchers and practitioners from diverse fields, including contaminant hydrogeology, environmental chemistry, toxicology, engineering, and policy, to share their insights on the occurrence, behaviour, and management of PFAS in the environment. We primarily seek contributions that explore the latest advancements in understanding PFAS pollution across different environmental matrices, including surface water, groundwater, and soils.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- The transport and fate of PFAS in terrestrial and aquatic environments,
- Modelling approaches to predict PFAS distribution and transport in various environmental settings,
- Innovative strategies and technologies for the treatment and remediation of PFAS-contaminated water, including drinking water and wastewater,
- Advancements and case studies on the successful application of PFAS remediation/mitigation techniques and their effectiveness in different environmental contexts,
- Ecotoxicological studies,
- Challenges and advancements in regulatory frameworks and policies for managing PFAS pollution, including approaches to identify and mitigate sources of PFAS contamination.

Given the complex nature of PFAS as "forever chemicals" and their ability to partition across different environmental media, this session emphasises the importance of interdisciplinary approaches and collaborative efforts to tackle the multifaceted challenges they present. We welcome studies that utilise laboratory research, field investigations, and modelling efforts, as well as contributions that discuss the implications of PFAS pollution on public and environmental health, ecological integrity, and regulatory landscapes.

The transfer of sediments and associated contaminants plays an important role in catchment ecosystems as they directly influence water quality, habitat conditions, and biogeochemical cycles. Contaminants may include heavy metals, pesticides, nutrients, radionuclides, and various organic, as well as organometallic compounds. The environmental risk posed by sediment-bound contaminants is largely determined by the sources and rate at which sediments are delivered to surface water bodies, the residence time in catchments, lakes, and river systems, as well as biogeochemical transformation processes. However, the dynamics of sediment and contaminant redistribution is highly variable in space and time due to the complex non-linear processes involved. This session thus focuses on sources, transport pathways, storage and re-mobilization, and travel times of sediments and contaminants across temporal and spatial scales, as well as their impact on catchment and freshwater ecosystems.

This session particularly addresses the following issues:
- Delivery rates of sediments and contaminants from various sources (i.e. agriculture, urban areas, mining, industry or natural areas);
- Transport, retention and remobilization of sediments and contaminants in catchments and river reaches;
- Modelling of sediment and contaminant transport on various temporal and spatial scales;
- Biogeochemical controls on contaminant transport and transformation;
- Studies on sedimentary processes and morphodynamics, particularly sediment budgets;
- Linkages between catchment systems and lakes, including reservoirs;
- Analysis of sediment archives to appraise landscape scale variations in sediment and contaminant yield over medium to long time-scales;
- Impacts of sediments and contaminants on floodplain, riparian, hyporheic and other in-stream ecosystems;
- Response of sediment and contaminant dynamics in catchments, lakes and rivers to changing boundary conditions and human actions;
- Assessing human impact on landforms and geomorphological processes in sediment and contaminant transport.

Soil health embraces the importance of soil function to the wider ecosystem in the past, presence, and future. Despite the formulation of such a holistic concept alongside its implementation in legal frameworks (e.g. the EU soil monitoring law), the quantification of soil health has continuing challenges. The first question is how to bound soil health, in essence, i) what is the appropriate reference framework, followed by ii) assessing how soil health should be monitored in a statistically robust way, iii) how should the most appropriate indicators be selected, iv) how do we ensure that indicators are robust to future technological change, and v) how do we integrate indicators into efficient indices? To meet these expectations for soil health evaluation and assessment, we need to establish known indicators and investigate new ones. Transdisciplinary indices are required that integrate biological, chemical and physical aspects which can produce both leading, concurrent and lagging indicators. This will require new measurement techniques including remote sensing of large areas, publicly available datasets of collected soil properties (e.g. LUCAS), and the use of mapping including artificial intelligence to process the plethora of data (e.g. EcoDataCube.eu; SoilGrids). Moreover, it needs to be determined how to integrate such new approaches into established monitoring.
To move from purely a collection of indicators to indicator integration and evolution for different soil types and land covers, we invite presentations on:
• Definition of reference and potential soil health status
• Development of soil health indicator framing in support of the EU soil monitoring law
• Testing new soil health indicators related to the risk of compaction, erosion, reduced biological activity and diversity, contamination and salinization, and depletion of organic matter and nutrients and how it changes
• Formulation of soil health indicators and indices across disciplines; integrating biological, chemical, and physical indicators
• New measurement techniques which enable the efficient monitoring of state and change indicators
• Modelling approaches to bridge the scale gap between point measurements and Pan-European monitoring

Soil is the largest carbon (C) reservoir in terrestrial ecosystems and soil organic carbon is the basis for soil’s biodiversity, health and fertility. Soil health is linked to the delivery of ecosystem services and it´s degradation is causing modern agroecosystems to face different challenges. The world population is increasing rapidly, and to feed the increasing population, transformational changes to agricultural systems are required. It is also essential that such changes do not impact environmental health and are implemented in a sustainable manner. The sustainable management of ecosystems to enhance both soil and subsoil organic C storage is one strategy to mitigate climate change and to provide soil-related ecosystem services. To date, the sustainability of land and soil management and long-term C sequestration are critically dependent on short- and long-term strategies, such as the input of other nutrients, as well as intrinsic soil characteristics and land use type. Thus, achieving long-term sustainability requires a thorough knowledge on the drivers and inter-related processes controlling soil C storage, nutrient cycling and soil-plant-microbe interactions. This session aims to gather new knowledge about key mechanisms and proxies controlling soil carbon and other nutrient dynamics and soil-plant-microbe interactions related to soil health traits, to promote soil C sequestration, and enhance the sustainability of agricultural systems and its relationship with natural ecosystems. These topics may also include soil fertility, provision of ecosystem services, and computation of their economic values and changes. Contributions on the management strategies in agricultural and natural systems are also welcome and will be summarised to help the translation of scientific knowledge into policy frameworks. Types of contribution appreciated include, but are not limited to, definitive and intermediate results; project outcomes; proposal of methods or sampling and modelling strategies, and the assessment of their effectiveness; projection of previous results at the light of climate change and climatic extremes; literature surveys, reviews, meta-analysis; and opinions. These works will be evaluated at the light of the organization of a special issue in an impacted journal. AB, VA, SS, IB, AT are supported by the projects SHARInG-MeD and/or SUS-SOIL, and AF by the EuroGrass project which take into account the soil health and sustainable land and crop management.

The interaction between the soil-plant-atmosphere compartments and human activities is of paramount importance for the sustainable management and preservation of ecosystem functions and services. The functionality and services of terrestrial ecosystems are threatened by global climate change and human activities. The complexity and comprehensiveness of the impacts have so far proven challenging to assess due to the limitations of simplified experimental approaches and long-term observations, which often focus on a limited number of response variables.
Experimental systems such as lysimeters or ecotrons provide continuous, high-resolution and high-quality observations of detailed time series, which are crucial for a more accurate determination of the Earth's ecosystem services and functions and for promoting interdisciplinary ecosystem research.
This session will mainly focus on the diversity of ecosystem research using research platforms of lysimeters and ecotrons. We would also like to address the challenges of modelling ecosystem processes, comparison of metrics with other in situ instruments, upscaling approaches from such platforms to larger scales, validation studies (e.g. remote sensing), but also new developments in the field of lysimetry and further development of processing algorithms for interpretation of high temporal resolution lysimeter/ecotron weight data. We welcome contributions that (1) present novelties in the field of lysimeters, (2) assess and compare the functioning and services of terrestrial ecosystems, particularly in relation to climate change, (3) focus on water and nutrient transport processes (4) and greenhouse gases within the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum, (5) develop new techniques for the analysis of lysimeter and ecotron observations, (6) include ecosystem or hydrological modelling approaches using in situ observations from lysimeters or ecotrons.

Wildfires are a worldwide phenomenon with many environmental, social, and economic implications, which are expected to escalate as a consequence of climate change and land abandonment, management, and planning, further promoting land degradation and decreasing ecosystem services supply.
The current situation demands from the scientific community the study of wildfire effects on the ecosystems and the development of integrated tools for pre- and post-fire land management practices that reduce the vulnerability to wildfires and their impacts. However, this research urges the attention not only from researchers, but also from stakeholders and policy-makers all over the world, since basic resources such as raw materials, water, and soils as well as habitats are at stake.
This session aims at gathering researchers on the effects of wildfires on ecosystems, from wildfire prevention to post-fire mitigation. We kindly invite laboratory, field, and/or modelling studies involving the following topics:
i. prescribed and/or experimental fires;
ii. fire severity and burn severity;
iii. fire effects on vegetation, soil and water;
iv. post-fire hydrological and erosive response;
v. post-fire management and mitigation;
vi. socio-economic studies on pre- and post-fire land management;
vii. fire risk assessment and modelling.

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.

Unsustainable land management practices and a changing climate are causing the degradation and desertification of large areas of land. The reduction of the capacity of the land to maintain vegetation, produce food and sequester soil carbon is affecting the livelihoods and traditions of local communities. This session aims to contribute to the reversal of land degradation through the exchange of knowledge and experiences on the assessment and mitigation of land degradation and desertification, with contributions from the organic farming research community.

Presentations in this session will introduce the use of Landscape Function Analysis for assessing land restoration practices, UAV surveys for modelling slope stability of agricultural mountain terraces, analysis of leaf nitrogen isotopes and N:P ratios across a transect in China, micro-catchment water-harvesting for olive trees with narcissus flowers, sustainable development of oasis systems, a project for testing of soil and social innovations for combatting desertification along the stakeholder chain, a Machine-Learning-Based Procedure for outscaling restoration measures, a novel approach to classify land degradation and conservation across Brazil, a review of methods for assessing land degradation neutrality, and a bibliometric analysis on desertification risk.

The potential of organic farming solutions for reducing land degradation, based on the natural cycles of energy and nutrients, will be illustrated in this session with results from experimental research on hydromulches for weed control in horticulture, an innovative biopesticide to reduce copper use, organic amendments to reduce cadmium uptake of leafy crops, sediments from agricultural surface-flow treatment wetlands as amendment in wheat cultivation, grain legumes followed by cover crops for retaining soil mineral nitrogen and olive pomace for silage production; and further enlightened by a review of soil health policies and a methodological framework for mapping key ecosystem services of conventional and agroecological practices with quantitative metrics derived from the literature.

The session will also introduce the establishment of Communities of Knowledge and Practice for sharing and discussing innovations for assessing and combatting desertification, hosted by the EU Soil Mission sister projects MONALISA and TERRASAFE, which you are welcome to join!

Agrogeophysics harnesses geophysical methods such as ground-penetrating radar, electrical imaging, seismic,... from hand-held over drone to satellite-borne, to characterize patterns or processes in the soil-plant continuum of interest for agronomic management. These methods help develop sustainable agricultural practices by providing minimally-invasive, spatially consistent, multi-scale, and temporally-resolved information of processes in agro- ecosystems that is inaccessible by traditional monitoring techniques. The aim of this session is to feature applications of geophysical methods in agricultural research and/or show methodologies to overcome their inherent limitations and challenges. We welcome contributions monitoring soil or plant properties and states revealing information relevant for agricultural management; studies developing and using proximal or remote sensing techniques for mapping or monitoring soil-water-plant interactions; work focused on bridging the scale gap between these multiple techniques; or work investigating pedophysical relationships to better understand laboratory-scale links between sensed properties and soil variables of interest. Submissions profiting on data fusion, utilizing innovative modeling tools for interpretation, and demonstrating novel acquisition or processing techniques are encouraged.

Soil management practices in agriculture have strong impacts on the environment, for example through the construction of terraces, land levelling works and deep tillage on slopes. Cultivation causes important effects in the soil system, influencing its physical, hydrological, chemical and biological properties through different soil management techniques.
Moreover, land degradation (e.g. soil erosion, shallow landslides) triggered by climate changes such as intense rainfall events, frequently affects crops in sloping terrains, creating severe economic damages and causing the loss of ecosystem services.
This session, proposed within the framework of the PNRR-NODES project (funded by the Italian MUR), will present the most recent scientific research on the interactions between land degradation (e.g. soil erosion, shallow landslides, compaction, loss of organic matter) and soil management practices in vineyards located in sloping areas, covering a wide spectrum of technologies, from field and laboratory measurements to remote sensing techniques, modelling approaches and mitigation measures. The main objective is to create synergy among scientists of different expertise and skills to discuss traditional and innovative methodological approaches to assess land degradation in agroecosystems with particular emphasis on vineyards.
For this session we encourage contributions from diverse fields, including:
• proximal and remote sensing for measurement and monitoring the effects of soil management practices,
• model implementation, parameterisation, uncertainties,
• simulation of the effects of soil management changes and climate changes.
Contributions concerning mitigation measures, such as innovative land management practices, that may help farmers and policy makers in the achievement of Land Degradation Neutrality are also welcome.

This session offers an opportunity to present studies or professional works regarding irrigated agriculture, either with disciplinary or multidisciplinary approaches, to provide solutions for the society's challenges in the XXI century, in the following areas:
• The resilience of irrigated areas at different spatial scales, mainly when water and soil are limiting factors.
• Estimation of crop transpiration/crop water requirement, even considering the possibility to apply regulated water deficit conditions.
• Coupling natural and human systems where ground and surface water and land are limiting resources for irrigation
• Safety in marginal water use in irrigated agriculture. Use of irrigation water from different non-conventional water sources
• Traditional, novel, and transitional technologies for irrigation management, control and practical application.
• Digital irrigation: application of available remote and proximal sensed data to tackle current and future irrigation problems.
• Improving the integration of climate change scenarios and weather forecasts into agro-hydrological models and decision support systems to improve decisions in irrigation management and safe surface water-groundwater interactions.

Posters and oral communications are available. Likewise, a Special Issue is foreseen

Agriculture is pivotal in the European economy and the global food supply. Europe is a significant producer of diverse crops, contributing significantly to feeding the world's population. The quality and characteristics of agricultural products are closely linked to the specific environmental conditions in which they are grown. These environmental factors, including climate, soil, and water, can vary significantly across regions and are increasingly influenced by the challenges of climate change.
Understanding the spatial and temporal variability of environmental factors is crucial for managing and preserving agricultural landscapes and adapting to climate change's current and future impacts.
This requires a deep understanding of plants’ mechanisms for acclimation, keeping in mind that functional traits (e.g., phenology,etc.) can be indicators and proxies of plant status, plasticity and resilience. Moreover, it involves applied research and technological innovation in agriculture, including the use of sensors to monitor environmental variables, remote sensing and drones for crop monitoring, predictive models for yield and disease, and advanced methods to study nutrient cycles and soil health.
Furthermore, growing public awareness of the importance of ecosystem health and sustainability has led to adopting quantitative approaches to understand the link between agricultural practices and ecosystem services, which are crucial for achieving long-term environmental goals. Agroecological approaches, such as cover cropping, organic amendments, and integrated pest management, are being increasingly adopted to enhance biodiversity, soil health, water and nutrient retention, and resilience to climate change.
On these bases, the session will delve into:
- Quantifying and Spatially Modeling Environmental Factors: Examining the complex interplay of climate, soil, and water and their influence on plant growth, yield, and quality.
- Agricultural Resilience to Climate Change: Exploring the adaptability of agricultural systems in the face of a changing climate and identifying strategies for adaptation and mitigation.
- Sustainable Agricultural Practices and Ecosystem Services: Analyzing the impact of diverse agricultural practices on soil and water quality, biodiversity, and related ecosystem services.
- Precision Agriculture and Technological Innovation: Utilizing advanced technologies to optimize resource use, improve crop management, and enhance sustainability.

The Mediterranean region is warming 20% faster than the global average. Impacts will place additional pressure on already stressed ecosystems as well as on vulnerable economies and societies. The agricultural sector is particularly affected by this transformation, both because it bears the impact of climate change and because it is tasked with contributing to its mitigation.
Carbon farming is the new frontier of sustainable agricultural systems to mitigate climate change through the management of the entire carbon supply chain at the farm level, including pools, flows, and GHG fluxes. This involves the management of both land and livestock, all pools of carbon in soils, materials and vegetation, plus fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH4), as well as nitrous oxide (N2O).
Despite progress in this field, a significant gap remains between scientific knowledge and the practical implementation of techniques that are to be adopted by farmers and supported by policymakers and practitioners.
The aim of this session is to present solutions in this field, and highlight application-, renovation- and transition-oriented insights for effective carbon farming implementation in Mediterranean climates.
We welcome contributions on:
- Carbon farming applications, including specific examples from livestock to field management sectors as well as more comprehensive approaches across the agro-livestock supply chain.
- Ways of monitoring (directly and indirectly) carbon farming applications, including but not limited to modelling, proximal and remote sensing technologies, soil mapping, GHG flux measurements, with particular emphasis on cost-effective techniques in both short and long-term.
- Verification on the long-term sustainability of carbon farming initiatives at both field and territorial level, including economic, socio-cultural and environmental aspects.
This will contribute to a lively discussion on how carbon farming can be achieved in the field and scale-up at the regional or continental area in order to support climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Modern agriculture has succeeded in increasing productivity to meet rising demand. In this context, it is now an important task to manage soils sustainably in order to maintain or enhance soil fertility and soil quality for food production, while also providing ecosystem services through agricultural land. Accordingly, it is necessary to identify and quantify the risks of soil degradation and to develop contemporary and locally adapted soil protection and restoration strategies, as well as tools to improve soil quality. Substantial impact of research results and technological solutions should be achieved by involving technicians, farmers and policy makers to ensure that the tools and approaches provided by researchers meet the practical needs of all stakeholders.
This session will cover all aspects of soil conservation, soil remediation, and fertilization strategies in agriculture at different spatial scales. This also includes approaches to support decision-making processes and to promote the uptake of research results in agricultural practice through agricultural stakeholders. We, therefore, particularly welcome contributions in the following topics:
i) Development of innovative soil improvement measures, soil remediation and fertilization strategies, supported by smart and innovative agricultural techniques and digital decision support tools.
ii) Development of methodologies (e.g., field work, laboratory analysis, sensor development, statistical analysis, algorithms, and models) for assessing the soil quality status and erosion processes.
iii) Monitoring and modelling studies investigating agricultural system approaches to enhance the quality of soil and water for food production under different environmental conditions and scales.
iv) Socioeconomic studies on soil and water resource use and conservation policies.
We warmly invite all researchers working in the field of soil and water conservation and soil restoration to participate in this session. We particularly encourage the TUdi project consortium (EU Horizon 2020 grant agreement no. 101000224) to attend this session.

Methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) are among the most important greenhouse gases (GHG) after carbon dioxide (CO2) in accelerating global warming and deserve special attention as their concentrations increase. Forest ecosystems play an important role in the exchange of GHGs with the atmosphere. It has been shown that not only soils but also trees play a significant role in the net exchange of CH4 and N2O in forests. Trees can contribute to ecosystem exchange by uptake and transport of soil-produced CH4 and N2O to the atmosphere, by in situ production and consumption of both gases in plant tissues, and by modifying carbon and nitrogen turnover in adjacent soils. However, the contribution of these individual processes to the net ecosystem GHG exchange is still unclear and appears to depend on many aspects such as tree species (tree traits), forest ecosystem type, environmental parameters and seasonal dynamics. Soil-tree-atmosphere interactions play a crucial role in controlling the global budget of these gases.

This session aims to bring together scientists working on CH4 and N2O cycles in forest ecosystems across different climatic and hydrological ranges and scales, which is crucial for improving our understanding of CH4 and N2O exchange in forest ecosystems. We welcome contributions on production and consumption processes and mechanisms in soils and plant tissues, as well as on gas transport processes in the soil-tree-atmosphere continuum. Gas flux measurements from forest soils, cryptogams, tree stems, leaves or canopies with chamber systems or integrated ecosystem approaches (flux tower with eddy covariance, satellite or modelling) would be highly appreciated. Methodological studies closely related to the investigation of CH4 and N2O exchange in forest ecosystems are also welcome.

Solicited author:
Prof. Daniel Epron (University of Kyoto, Japan)

Managed agricultural ecosystems, including grasslands and croplands, play a critical role in the global carbon and nitrogen cycles. They are an important source and/or sink for greenhouse gases (GHG) as well as reactive trace gases. Intensified land use and poor management have contributed to soil carbon depletion and increased GHG emissions. In contrast, sustainable management strategies offer promising pathways for enhancing carbon sequestration and mitigating nitrogen losses, as well as GHG emissions. These practices also influence the release of reactive trace gases, including ammonia, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds highlighting the need for holistic approaches that balance trade-offs and manage interactions between carbon, nitrogen, and gas fluxes.
This session, specifically focusing on grasslands and croplands, addresses experimental and modelling studies on carbon and nitrogen cycling processes and related gas fluxes at the mesocosm, field, or landscape scale. It is open to a wide range of topics including the development and application of new devices, methods, and modelling approaches, as well as field observations and process studies. Findings on comprehensive carbon, nitrogen, or GHG budgets are particularly welcome. We also encourage contributions on the applicability and overall potential of mitigation options that can inform policy recommendations for climate-smart agriculture.

Sustainable agriculture and forestry face the challenges of lacking scalable solutions and sufficient data for monitoring vegetation structural and physiological traits, vegetation (a)biotic stress, and the impacts of environmental conditions and management practices on ecosystem productivity. Remote sensing from spaceborne, unmanned/manned airborne, and proximal sensors provides unprecedented data sources for agriculture and forestry monitoring across scales. The synergy of hyperspectral, multispectral, thermal, LiDAR, or microwave data can thoroughly identify vegetation stress symptoms in near real-time and combined with modeling approaches to forecast ecosystem productivity. This session welcomes a wide range of contributions on remote sensing for sustainable agriculture and forestry including, but not limited to: (1) the development of novel sensing instruments and technologies; (2) the quantification of ecosystem energy, carbon, water, and nutrient fluxes across spatial and temporal scales; (3) the synergy of multi-source and multi-modal data; (4) the development and applications of machine learning, radiative transfer modeling, or their hybrid; (5) the integration of remotely sensed plant traits to assess ecosystem functioning and services; (6) the application of remote sensing techniques for vegetation biotic and abiotic stress detection; and (7) remote sensing to advance nature-based solutions in agriculture and forestry for climate change mitigation. This session is inspired by the cost action program, Pan-European Network of Green Deal Agriculture and Forestry Earth Observation Science (PANGEOS, https://pangeos.eu/), which aims to leverage state-of-the-art remote sensing technologies to advance field phenotyping workflows, precision agriculture/forestry practices and larger-scale operational assessments for a more sustainable management of Europe’s natural resources.

Accurate monitoring of various hydrological cycle components (e.g., precipitation, evaporation, water storage, and runoff) and the anthropogenic fluxes which modify them, as well as the development of models to reproduce them are important for improving our understanding of hydrological processes. Acquiring this understanding is a crucial prerequisite to ameliorate resource management, optimize the development of infrastructure, and adjust land use practices to changing climate conditions and hazards such as floods and droughts, in particular irrigation management.
Agriculture is the largest consumer of water worldwide and huge differences exist between modern irrigation technology and traditional practices. However, reliable and organized data about water withdrawals for agricultural purposes are generally lacking worldwide, thus making irrigation a key missing variable to close the water budget over anthropized basins. Climate changes and increasing human pressure, together with traditional wasteful irrigation practices are enhancing the conflictual potential in water use, even in countries traditionally rich in water. Hence, saving irrigation water and improving irrigation efficiency on large areas with modern techniques is an urgent required action.
Several studies have recently explored the possibility of monitoring the natural and anthropogenic components of the water cycle by leveraging remote sensing information in combination with ground-based observations and/or hydrological modelling.
In this session, we will focus on:
-the use of approaches combining remote sensing data, hydrological modelling, and in-situ data to estimate variables in natural, agricultural, and anthropized systems (such as irrigation volumes and timing); and to analyse hydrological extremes
-the combination of satellite data and hydrological modelling to improve water management approaches such as irrigation water use efficiency and precision farming
- the performance of remotely sensed data in multi-variable calibration and spatial evaluation of hydrological and agricultural models

Please note: This is a merged session with multiple topics.

A transformation towards sustainable agriculture is essential to secure food for both current and future generations while restoring natural resources. Agricultural productivity today faces multiple challenges, including climate change, water scarcity, limited access to essential inputs, socio-economic disparities, and rising global demand for agricultural products. Additionally, agriculture must play a pivotal role in mitigating climate change, reducing environmental pollution, and preserving biodiversity. Addressing these complex demands necessitates a comprehensive evaluation of alternative land management practices across local to global scales, with a focus on assessing entire agricultural production systems rather than isolated products.
This session will address the modeling of agricultural systems in the context of global change, focusing on challenges related to climate change adaptation and mitigation, sustainable intensification, and the environmental impacts of agricultural production. We invite contributions on methodological approaches, data innovations, assessments of climate impacts and adaptation strategies, environmental consequences, greenhouse gas mitigation, and economic evaluations.

Agricultural activities are one of the major contributors to trace gases in the atmosphere. Besides the contribution to methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O), ammonia (NH₃), ground-level ozone (O₃), and various volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are triggered by agricultural activities. These trace gases play significant roles in biogeochemical cycles, affecting air quality and interplaying with climate change. Understanding the dynamics of the source and sink processes of these trace gases—from agricultural soils, crops, and the impact of diverse management practices—is essential for developing effective strategies or practices to mitigate their environmental impact.
This session, " Agricultural Trace Gas Dynamics and Air Quality: Innovative Approaches and Emerging Insights," aims to showcase the latest research and technological advancements in measuring and modeling trace gas exchanges and concentrations within agricultural ecosystems.
The session will welcome the following topics, but not limited to, (1) the impact of different agricultural management practices, such as tillage, mineral/organic fertilization, irrigation, crop rotation, and livestock management, on trace gas concentrations, emissions and depositions from a range of agroecosystems across the globe; (2) cutting-edge methodologies, such as ecosystem-scale monitoring, automated chamber systems, remote sensing technologies, and novel analytical tools for detecting VOCs and other trace gases; (3) the use of state-of-the-art modeling techniques, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, to extrapolate and predict gas dynamics patterns under various environmental and management scenarios; (4) challenges and opportunities associated with reducing the environmental footprint of agriculture.
We seek to bring together researchers, policymakers, and industry practitioners, especially the early career researchers, to join and contribute their fresh perspectives and ideas to this important discussion. Expected outcomes include fostering new collaborations, identifying research gaps on agricultural trace gas management and the challenges of climate change and air quality, and developing actionable recommendations for sustainable agricultural practices that may improve soil health, air quality, and global food security.

Observations are the cornerstone of understanding hydrological processes, providing essential data for model development and validation. However, the integration of monitoring strategies and measurement tools into data mining and modeling remains a significant challenge in vadose zone hydrology. To address this, advancements in technologies such as remote sensing, high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, digital twins, and the Internet of Things are crucial. This session aims to explore the integration of diverse observational approaches across different spatial scales to enhance our understanding of vadose zone processes. By combining advanced technologies, soil processes can be simulated and predicted at large spatial scales, enabling the evaluation of global warming, soil contamination, salinization, erosion, and land use change impacts on soil and water resources in agro-ecosystems (i.e., arable land and grassland, orchards, forest, agro-forestry, urban fabric).
We invite contributions on the following topics:
• Innovative observation techniques and technologies: New methods for measuring soil variables and fluxes (e.g., soil moisture) and other vadose zone physical, chemical, and hydraulic properties.
• Data mining and analysis: Advanced techniques for extracting meaningful information from large and complex datasets.
• Model development and integration: Coupling of models with various observation data sources to improve predictions.
• Applications and case studies: Demonstration on how integrated observations and models can address specific hydrological challenges to evaluate the impact of natural and human disturbances (extreme weather events exacerbated by global warming, soil contamination, salinization, erosion, and land use change) on soil and water resources.
• Challenges and future directions: Discussions on the limitations and opportunities for future research in vadose zone hydrology.
By fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and sharing knowledge, this session will significantly advance our understanding and management of the vadose zone, a critical region in the Earth's subsurface that controls the flow of water, nutrients, and pollutants.

Spatial soil information is fundamental for environmental modelling and land management. Spatial representation (maps) of soil attributes (both laterally and vertically) and of soil-landscape processes are needed at a scale appropriate for environmental management. The challenge is to develop explicit, quantitative, and spatially realistic models of the soil-landscape continuum. Modern advances in soil sensing, geospatial technologies, and spatial statistics are enabling exciting opportunities to efficiently create more consistent, detailed, and accurate soil maps while providing information about the related uncertainty. The production of high-quality soil maps is a key issue because it enables stakeholders (e.g. farmers, planners, other scientists) to understand the variation of soils at the landscape, field, and sub-field scales. They can be used as input in environmental models, such as hydrological, climate or vegetation productivity (crop models) addressing the uncertainty in the soil layers and its impact in the environmental modelling. When the products of digital soil mapping are integrated within other environmental models it enables assessment and mapping of soil functions to support sustainable management. We welcome presentations that 1) demonstrate the implementation and use of digital soil maps in different disciplines such as agricultural (e.g. crops, food production) and environmental (e.g. element cycles, water, climate) modelling 2) advance the tools of digital soil mapping 3) investigate the philosophy and strategies of digital soil mapping at different scales and for different purposes. We also welcome contributions reporting the state of the art of soil property prediction from hyperspectral satellites, especially focusing on quantitative estimationsmaking use of data-driven approaches such as machine learning, and physically based modelling or the integration of both.

The session invites experimentalists and modelers working on air-land interactions from local to regional scales, in vegetated and/or urban systems. The program is open to a wide range of innovative studies in micrometeorology and related atmospheric and remote sensing disciplines. The topics may include the development of new observational devices, measurement techniques, experimental designs, data analysis methods, as well as novel findings on surface layer theory and parametrization, including local and non-local processes. Theory-based contributions may encompass soil-vegetation-atmosphere transport, internal boundary-layer theories, and flux footprint analyses. Of particular interest are synergistic studies employing experimental data, parametrizations, and models addressing energy and trace gas fluxes (of inert and reactive species) as well as water, carbon dioxide and other GHG fluxes. We focus on addressing outstanding problems in land surface boundary layer descriptions such as complex terrain, effects of horizontal heterogeneity on sub-meso-scale transport processes, energy balance closure, coupling/decoupling, stable stratification and night time fluxes, dynamic interactions with atmosphere, and plants (in canopy and above canopy) and soils.

Nature-based climate solutions, such as conservation agriculture, forest restoration, and wetland rewetting, offer great promises to increase soil organic carbon (SOC) and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for climate change mitigation. However, they also impact a variety of ecosystem properties such as surface albedo, energy partitioning, and hydrological cycles. To effectively measure, report, and verify (MRV) SOC changes, GHG fluxes, and climate-relevant parameters or processes, enhanced monitoring and modeling capabilities are urgently needed to comprehensively quantify the dynamics of carbon, energy, water, and nutrients in ecosystems. This session welcomes a wide range of contributions on topics related to nature-based climate solutions in agriculture, forestry, wetland, and other landscapes including, but not limited to: (1) developing scalable and cost-effective monitoring capacities through proximal and remote sensing combined with modeling to track SOC changes, GHG emissions, surface albedo, energy and water fluxes; (2) synthesizing multi-source observations to infer changes in the mentioned parameters and processes in natural and managed ecosystems; (3) developing process-based models to simulate the coupled carbon-food-water-energy processes in various landscapes; and (4) Enhancing systematic model-data integration to quantify the climatic impacts of nature-based solutions and inform decision-making in farming practice, policy design, and economic returns.

Many regions worldwide are coping with the climatic global change, which is causing an increase in extreme hydro-meteorological events. Shallow landslides involving the first meters of soil layers could increase significantly compared to current and past scenarios, modifying the susceptibility of a region and the frequency of their triggering. These phenomena provoke significant environmental damages, particularly in hilly and mountainous areas, with a general loss of shallow soil layers rich in organic matter and nutrients fundamental for agricultural areas and biodiversity. The triggering of these phenomena is related to the effect of intense rainfall events on usually unsaturated soils, with a predisposition related to the hydrological conditions present in soil layers. Hydrological field monitoring is, then, fundamental to understand the predisposing and triggering conditions of shallow landslides and to develop and calibrate reliable models for their spatio-temporal prediction.
This session aims to collect researches concerning the most recent progress on monitoring, predicting, and modeling shallow landslides at different spatial and temporal scales, covering a wide spectrum of approaches, from field and laboratory measurements to remote sensing techniques, modelling methods, and mitigation measures. We encourage presentations related to:
● laboratory or field models to assess the physical, geological, and hydrological conditions leading to the triggering of these phenomena;
● field hydrological monitoring for the assessment of predisposing and triggering conditions of shallow landslides;
● proximal and remote sensing methods for measurement and monitoring hillslopes prone to shallow landslides, to identify precursory evidence and to map new phenomena;
● development, application, and validation of models for the prediction of shallow landslides;
● effects of climatic global changes and land use changes on the susceptibility and hazards towards shallow landslides;
● mitigation measures to reduce the proneness of a territory towards shallow landslides.

This session is focused on processes occurring within the lithosphere in the framework of the environmental systems, and it is oriented toward collecting studies relevant to understand the multiscale aspects of these systems and in proposing adequate multi-platform and inter-disciplinary tools for their monitoring.
The session is especially aimed to emphasize the interaction between the different environmental processes occurring at various spatial and temporal scales, which can also involve several orders of magnitude. Special attention is devoted to the studies focused on the development of techniques of data analysis and collection through new algorithms and technologies for multiscale monitoring of natural area characterize by different hazard, such as associated to volcanic processes, seismic events, energy exploitation, slope instability, floods, coastal instability, climate changes, and any other environmental context.
We expect contributions derived from several disciplines, as applied geophysics, geology, seismology, geodesy, geochemistry, remote and proximal sensing, volcanology, applied geology, soil science, marine geology and oceanography. In this context, the contributions in analytical and numerical modeling of geological and environmental processes are welcome, as well as the inter-disciplinary studies that highlight their multiscale properties.
The session includes, but not limited to, the following topics:
-Sensor design, real-time monitoring systems, and autonomous platforms such as AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles) and ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles);
-Diagnostic techniques for ensuring the reliability and functionality of ocean instrumentation, addressing issues like sensor drift, biofouling, power limitations, and the impact of extreme environmental conditions;
-Strategies of monitoring of the environmental systems in the space-time domain;
-Modeling methods for the simulation of environmental processes and optimization of their representative parameters;
-Laboratory experiments and field activities to study and model the sources, transport and effect of traditional and emerging contaminants in the environments;
-Environmental impact and risk analyses, uncertainty estimates and vulnerability/resilience assessment.

This session aims to present recent advances in the analysis of environmental and soil contaminations using Applied Geophysics, Remote Sensing and Artificial Intelligence.
Characterizing and understanding the surface and subsurface is a challenge for many scientific areas.
Applied Geophysics investigates underground using a variety of non-invasive, and non-destructive techniques such as ground-penetrating radar, magnetics, electrical resistivity tomography, electromagnetic induction, and seismics. Remote Sensing uses methods such as photogrammetry, LIDAR, GNSS, and satellite hyperspectral data to determine physical properties at a distance. Some remote sensing technologies can also provide information from the subsurface or interior of structures. Artificial Intelligence, namely Machine Learning, can be a useful tool to manage information using as input data provided by different methods, allowing the calculation of new contamination maps, that can help in the analysis of contamination areas.
Knowledge in these fields can be applied to a variety of research topics, in addition to laboratorial chemical analysis procedures, namely, to evaluate environmental pollutants (e.g. potentially toxic metals), and contributing to increasing knowledge about contaminated areas. When combined with other methods, they enable the development of integrated models of environmental management of contaminated areas, allowing the development of environmental risk maps, and contributing to the reduction of sampling and operational costs, as well as the reduction of assessment times in the management of contaminated areas.
The potential for replicability of this approaches is high, and can be applied in mines, landfills, industry and intensive agriculture.
This session will collect the contributions from Applied Geophysics, Remote Sensing, and Artificial Intelligence on the following topics:
- Environmental studies: characterization of the soil contamination by potentially toxic metals.
- Innovations in data acquisition, and processing of Geophysical, Remote Sensing and AI methods.

Imaging the Earth’s surface and reconstructing its topography to study the landscape and (sub-) surface processes have strongly evolved during the past two decades, sometimes separately in different scientific disciplines of geosciences. New generations of satellites, Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), LiDAR systems, Structure-from-Motion (SfM) methods and deep learning approaches have made 2D, 3D and 4D (time series) data acquisitions easier, cheaper, and more precise. The spatial, temporal and spectral resolutions of the measurements cover wide ranges of scales, offering the opportunity to study the evolution of the ground surface from local to regional scale with unprecedented details. Coupled with the development of optimized workflows to digitize and process analogue data, such as historical aerial photographs, geoscientists now have various sets of tools to better understand our rapidly changing environments and distinguish the anthropogenic and natural causes of these changes.

However, challenges still exist at both methodological and application levels. How to properly acquire images and 3D data in harsh, remote or non-ideal environments? How to deal with complex camera distortions? How to process unknown, damaged and/or poorly overlapping digitized analogue photographs? How to properly assess the precision of these measurements and take these estimates into account in our results and interpretation? How to deal with heterogeneous time series? These questions exemplify situations commonly faced by geoscientists.

In the present session, we would like to gather contributions from a broad range of geoscience disciplines (geomorphology, glaciology, volcanology, hydrology, bio-geosciences, geology, soil sciences, etc.) to share our views and experience about the opportunities, limitations and challenges that modern 2D/3D/4D surface imaging offers, no matter the physical process or environment studied. Contributions can cover any aspects of surface imaging, from new methods, tools and processing workflows to precision assessments, time series constructions and specific applications in geosciences. We would like to especially emphasize contributions that cover 1) novel data acquisition and processing approaches (including image matching, camera distortion correction, complex signal/image and point cloud processing, and time series construction), 2) data acquisition in complex and fast-changing environments, and 3) innovative applications in geosciences.

Stable isotopes are powerful tools for tracing water fluxes and associated nutrients in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. Given the complex interactions between subsurface water fluxes, plant water uptake and atmospheric drivers, new field- and laboratory-based methods should enable observations of ecohydrological processes at a high temporal and spatial resolution and with high precision and accuracy. At the same time, ecohydrological models shed new light on water and nutrient fluxes in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. We welcome experimental and modelling studies that present methodological developments and applications of isotope tracers to improve our process knowledge of water and nutrient fluxes between the subsurface, plants and the atmosphere, across different scales (from plant and forest stand up to the catchment scale). In our session, we aim to discuss i) innovative process-based interpretations from stable isotope data, ii) novel methods of model applications and data analysis, as well as iii) current methodological developments. We aim to foster interdisciplinary exchange between the various fields assessing ecohydrological processes using natural tracers, including research in groundwater and vadose zone hydrology, plant physiology, and ecology.

Sitting under a tree, you feel the spark of an idea, and suddenly everything falls into place. The following days and tests confirm: you have made a magnificent discovery — so the classical story of scientific genius goes…

But science as a human activity is error-prone, and might be more adequately described as "trial and error", or as a process of successful "tinkering" (Knorr, 1979). Thus we want to turn the story around, and ask you to share 1) those ideas that seemed magnificent but turned out not to be, and 2) the errors, bugs, and mistakes in your work that made the scientific road bumpy. What ideas were torn down or did not work, and what concepts survived in the ashes or were robust despite errors? We explicitly solicit Blunders, Unexpected Glitches, and Surprises (BUGS) from modeling and field or lab experiments and from all disciplines of the Geosciences.

Handling mistakes and setbacks is a key skill of scientists. Yet, we publish only those parts of our research that did work. That is also because a study may have better chances to be accepted for publication in the scientific literature if it confirms an accepted theory or if it reaches a positive result (publication bias). Conversely, the cases that fail in their test of a new method or idea often end up in a drawer (which is why publication bias is also sometimes called the "file drawer effect"). This is potentially a waste of time and resources within our community as other scientists may set about testing the same idea or model setup without being aware of previous failed attempts.

In the spirit of open science, we want to bring the BUGS out of the drawers and into the spotlight. In a friendly atmosphere, we will learn from each others' mistakes, understand the impact of errors and abandoned paths onto our work, and generate new insights for our science or scientific practice.

Here are some ideas for contributions that we would love to see:
- Ideas that sounded good at first, but turned out to not work.
- Results that presented themselves as great in the first place but turned out to be caused by a bug or measurement error.
- Errors and slip-ups that resulted in insights.
- Failed experiments and negative results.
- Obstacles and dead ends you found and would like to warn others about.

--
Knorr, Karin D. “Tinkering toward Success: Prelude to a Theory of Scientific Practice.” Theory and Society 8, no. 3 (1979): 347–76.

In the face of climate change, Africa is more than ever in need of climate services, scientific infrastructure and skilled people who are trained in providing solutions for their countries in how best deal with the adverse impacts of climate change. Over the past years, European governments and funding agencies have invested in climate change research and capacity building in various regions of Africa. However, these initiatives, mostly work independently and do not seek for synergies or collaborations.
This session aims to bring these capacity building initiatives together, provide them a stage to present themselves and a platform for networking, finding synergies and collaborations. We invite initiatives of any kind to present their work related to climate change capacity development in Africa. This also includes climate change-related topics such as, floods, droughts, natural hazards, land degradation, and so on. We welcome the full-variety of capacity building initiatives, including small-scale teaching or workshops (online or on site), co-development of research or monitoring infrastructure, master programmes, doctoral programmes, training of local communities or single research projects that include a capacity development component.
After getting an insight in the full bandwidth of capacity development initiatives in this session, we aim to follow-up with a splinter meeting in which the foundation of a European-African Network for Capacity Development in climate change Adaptation research in Africa (NetCDA) will be discussed. The NetCDA network should provide the basis for future exchange, sharing best practices and finding collaborations between various initiatives and institutions. We invite all session participants and other interested climate scientists from both continents to attend this splinter meeting. More details of the timing and location of this splinter meeting will follow.

Following the success of previous years, this session will explore reasons for the under-representation of different groups (gender identities, sexual orientations, racial and cultural backgrounds, abilities, religions, nationality or geography, socioeconomic status, ages, career stages, etc.) by welcoming debate among scientists, decision-makers and policy analysts in the geosciences.

The session will focus on both obstacles that contribute to under-representation and on best practices and innovative ideas to remove those obstacles. Contributions are solicited on the following topics:

- Role models to inspire and further motivate others (life experience and/or their contributions to promote equality)
- Imbalanced representation, preferably supported by data, for awards, medals, grants, high-level positions, invited talks and papers
- Perceived and real barriers to inclusion (personally, institutionally, culturally)
- Recommendations for new and innovative strategies to identify and overcome barriers
- Gender Equality Plans (GEP) in European host institutions: the good, the bad, and the ugly
- Best practices and strategies to move beyond barriers, including:
• successful mentoring programmes;
• networks that work;
• specific funding schemes;
• examples of host institutions initiatives;

Report on situations that you may have experienced in light of recent socio-political changes.

This session is co-organised with the support of the European Research Council (ERC).

Evidence-based policymaking aims to ground public policies in the best available research and data, ensuring that decisions are informed by robust evidence rather than by ideology, assumptions, or political considerations. To support and inform policy, stakeholders need to engage in a way that addresses needs and develops solutions. To ensure this engagement is effective, it is important to identify the most effective formats for engagement to ensure re-searchers contributions enrich and strengthen local, national or international policy.
This session aims to show how research activities and outputs may impact society and policy beyond the academic world. It will highlight stories of success and failure from scientists who have engaged in policy or other activities that made critical societal impacts – either on an international, European, national, or local level – across different geoscience disciplines. Equally important, the session will also present the role of those working from within political institutions who have facilitated successful science-society-policy-dialogues. It will also aim to examine the various challenges that researchers face when engaging on the science-society-policy interface and various strategies that others have taken to manage and overcome them.

This session is relevant for researchers, policymakers, and those working on the interface from all career levels and science disciplines and will provide space for follow-up questions and a discussion with the participants at the session and at a splinter meeting during EGU25 week.

Geoethics is essential for addressing global crises such as climate change, ecological degradation, and resource overexploitation. The integration of ethical principles at the heart of geoscience allows us to make more sustainable, equitable, and informed decisions.
Geoscientists play a key role in providing accurate and unbiased data to policymakers, and in helping to ensure that decisions reflect the full range of environmental, social, and economic impacts. Their responsibility however extends beyond the sole providing of information: They can actively engage with policymakers and the public to tackle critical challenges, including climate change, ocean degradation, biodiversity loss, pollution and the conflicts driven by fossil fuel dependency.
Despite increasing advocacy for transformative solutions, global efforts remain insufficient to address the climate and ecological crises. As global warming nears the 1.5°C threshold (WMO), the primary obstacle to climate action is not as much a lack of awareness, than resistance and denial from powerful vested interests. In the meantime, many institutions, including universities and research centres, tend to reinforce the status quo instead of driving necessary change.
In such a scenario, what role can geoscientists assume in order to facilitate urgent transformations?
Geoethics provides a crucial framework for guiding geoscientific practices toward responsible, scientifically-sound and sustainable actions.
Through geo-education, effective communication, and the integration of ethical perspectives, geoscientists can build trust, enhance transparency, and engage communities. They can empower citizens with knowledge about the complexities of climate and ocean change, which is essential for fostering collective action and meaningful progress. Some geoscientists decide to engage in collective action themselves, for instance by pressuring research institutes to reduce their environmental impact, or by using civil disobedience to denounce harmful projects and actors.
By cultivating a culture of ethical responsibility, geoscientists can help mitigate harm, enhance resilience and promote long-term sustainability. Geoethics urges the geoscientific community to transcend technical solutions and advocate for radical, justice-driven transformations that meet the urgency of the climate and ecological crises.
This session seeks to inspire dialogue, showcase innovative practices and explore the evolving role of geoscience in cultural, policymaking, and societal change.

Climate change represents one of the defining societal challenges of the 21st century. However, the response to this challenge remains largely inadequate across the board. Both in terms of mitigation and adaptation, measures currently taken by countries or companies fall short of what is required to ensure a safe and healthy life for populations around the globe, both today and in the future. The past and continued failure to address climate change results in extreme weather events causing damages and losses, as well as the prospect of further worsening impacts. Insufficient emission reductions exacerbate existing vulnerabilities and lead to increasingly unsafe living conditions in the future. The shortfall in climate action has led citizens to take up legal action to either receive compensation for suffered climate damages or force decision makers to commit to the necessary emissions reductions. In this session, we invite contributions that help bridge the gap between the legal practice of climate litigation and the geosciences. This can include new scientific methods that can support legal efforts, and inter- and transdisciplinary perspectives on how to integrate geoscience insights in litigation, and how to communicate scientific findings to legal practitioners and society at large, in light of legal and ethical aspects of climate change. We also welcome contributions assessing questions of climate change and impact attribution, responsibility, human rights, burden sharing of efforts, translation between science and law, and communication of scientific findings, that link beyond disciplinary boundaries.