Microbial life, activities and processes in soil are distributed extremely heterogeneously in space and time, always limited by many factors, especially by available organics. In short periods – the hot moments – the factors limiting microbial activities are ceased, and life thrives. Such hotspots are common in the rhizosphere, detritusphere, drilosphere, and on biogeochemical interfaces.
This session challenges to identify microbial groups, transformations and mechanisms responsible for carbon and nutrient cycling in such hotspots, to link them with soil structure and pore architecture, and to assess the key ecological processes ongoing during hot moments but having long-lasting effects on soil properties and functions.
We invite lab, microcosm and field studies that explore, visualize and explain the drivers and mechanisms of processes in hotspots at all scales during hot moments. In situ, in vivo and in silico studies as well as innovative concepts are very welcome to discuss how soil life and microbial death needs to be at the right time and right place to make a footprint relevant at larger ecological scales.