Soil health is the capacity of soil to function as an ecosystem, providing means to sustain productivity and maintain environmental quality. In the EU alone, 60% of the soils are degraded due to both global change factors (warming, extreme weather events, elevated CO2 levels, droughts, floods, etc.) and human activity (intensive agriculture, land-use change, industrial processes, etc.). Initial modifications of 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 biological soil health descriptors or indicators, such as microbial respiration, enzyme activities, diversity and functions of soil (micro)organisms and other 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 temporal and spatial scales, from micro-level to global perspectives.
Confirmed invited speaker - Dr. Panos Panagos, European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy