Soil is a critical component of terrestrial ecosystems, playing a central role in food production and other ecosystem services. However, various human activities and soil management practices have led to widespread contamination of the soil (e.g. with metals, metalloids, radionuclides, organic compounds, and emerging contaminants), as well as other factors that degrade the soil (e.g. erosion, salinisation, and loss of organic matter). It is essential to understand the extent, sources and impacts of soil contamination in order to inform sustainable land management and remediation strategies. Several materials and remediation techniques have been studied, mainly at laboratory/greenhouse scale, but their effectiveness in the field is unknown.
This session focuses on advances in the assessment, monitoring, and recovery of contaminated soils, providing a platform for interdisciplinary discussion across soil science, environmental geochemistry, ecology, and restoration science. We invite colleagues to present their studies on the following topics: Soil health and the mitigation of contaminating processes; Assessment of contaminated areas and risk using classical techniques, bioindicators, biomarkers, and/or digital tools; Evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of techniques and materials (e.g. phytoremediation, 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; Soil-plant interactions in contaminated and recovered environments; Monitoring and the environmental response of ecosystems after the implementation of remediation programmes; Legal frameworks and the limitations of soil remediation strategies; among other.
This session will provide an opportunity to present studies and establish new partnerships, with the aim of developing multidisciplinary strategies that can contribute to the assessment and remediation of contaminated sites.