To cover a wide range of topics in Soil Sciences, seventeen General Topics (GTs listed below) were identified that should encompass most areas of interest. In addition, the topic, "5^th EUSO Stakeholders Forum - Cutting edge developments with the EU Soil Mission", is included for those who submit their work to the event organized by the EU-Soil Observatory, which will take place in parallel on Tuesday, 9^th.

When submitting an abstract, the authors will be asked to rank their top two GT preferences for consideration. Specific Scientific Committee (SC) members will handle the GTs. Following the SC's review process, additional Sessions (subtopics) may be introduced for the final program based on the themes received. In addition, the opening of Sessions (subtopics) will also be considered upon request by individual participants or groups.(deadline 31^st March 2025 extended to 14^st April 2025 contact us at info@eurosoil2025.eu).

The conveners will be responsible for promoting their sessions, and participants should submit their abstracts to the GT where the session is included. They may also indicate their preference to be part of a specific session at the end of their abstract.

 

GT 1. Soil Genesis, Evolution and Classification

 

     Session 1.1. Soils Though Time: From the Past to the Future.

     Conveners: F. Scarciglia (Univ. Calabria, Italy) & F. Kurbanova (Inst. Geography RAS, Russia). From the IUSS 1.6.

Soil development is driven by soil-forming factors (functional-factorial model) and their transformations over time, initially shaped by climatic shifts and, in the Anthropocene, increasingly influenced by human activities. Understanding contemporary soils and soil cover requires exploring their history — the legacy of past environmental conditions and soil-forming processes. This session will explore how past soils have shaped the current state of soil systems and the soil mantle, as well as how insights from both past and present soils can help predict future developments to face major challenges posed by climate changes and human impacts.

We invite contributions on evolutionary pathways in soils, including buried and exposed paleosols and protosoils, paleo-features in polygenetic contemporary surface soils, and soil-sedimentary systems such as loess, alluvial, colluvial, tephra, and various anthropogenic and anthropogenically transformed sequences, particularly in archaeological deposits. Investigations devoted to the classification of the listed soils are welcome. Research utilizing mono- and multiproxy soil and soil-sedimentary archives at different spatio-temporal scales, applying both traditional and novel approaches, methods, and techniques, is welcome. 

 

     Session 1.2. Advances in Soil Mapping

     Conveners: Samuel Guerreiro (Univ. Lisboa, Portugal) & Andrea Vacca (Univ. Cagliari, Italy)

Addressing global issues such as climate change, land degradation, water and food security, biodiversity loss, carbon sequestration, and human health depends on access to comprehensive and reliable soil information systems. Soil maps play a fundamental role in these systems, supporting sustainable land management and natural resource conservation by enabling the implementation of site-specific practices. To fulfil this objective, soil maps must provide accurate, updated, and harmonised information. Given the current constraints on available resources and time for conducting soil surveys, leveraging legacy soil data and digital technologies has become essential for advancing soil mapping. The development of new software, advances in computational power, emergence of artificial intelligence, and enhanced predictive modelling techniques have significantly improved mapping accuracy and impact, offering new insights on soil genesis, evolution and classification. In recent years, numerous national and international initiatives have emerged to create, update, and harmonise soil maps, enhancing their applicability for scientific research, policy development, and land resources management. This session invites contributions on modern methodologies and strategies aimed at improving soil mapping, with a particular focus on integrating legacy soil data, applying advanced digital technologies and harmonizing maps at multiple scales. Discussions will explore innovative approaches that enhance the accuracy, interpretability, and practical usability of soil maps. We strongly encourage the submission of abstracts presenting original research that contributes to the advancement of soil mapping and its role on soil science and sustainable land use.

 

GT 2. Soil Physical Chemistry

 

     Session 2.1. Impact of the Physical-Chemical Properties of Soil and Subsoil on the Provision of Ecosystem Services

     Conveners: F. González (Evenor-Tech, Spain)

 

GT 3. Soil Biogeochemistry & Global Change

 

     Session 3.1. Soil greenhouse gas fluxes in agricultural and forest systems: Measurements, synthesis and modelling

     Conveners: J. Álvaro-Fuentes (EEAD-CSIC, Spain) & R. Zornoza (Univ. Politécnica Cartagena, Spain)

Soils are emitters of carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O). Management practices impact soil carbon and nitrogen cycles which, in turn, influence the production and emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) from the soil surface into the atmosphere. In this context, it is essential to search and identify mitigation strategies that may help to meet the commitments outlined in various national and international regulations (e.g. the European Climate Law). Over the past few decades, various methodologies have been developed to measure gas fluxes from soils, encompassing both field and laboratory techniques which allow for precise estimations of gas emission rates under different soil, climate and management conditions. Furthermore, the data collected have helped to calibrate and validate simulation models for predicting soil gas fluxes under different land uses and regions around the world.

The main objective of this session is to present studies related to soil greenhouse gas production and emissions in agricultural, grassland and/or forest systems. We welcome contributions on management impacts, mesocosm, field or landscape-scale experiments, meta-analyses and data reviews, methods approaches and/or modelling studies.

 

     Session 3.2. Optimizing roots for sustainable crop production in Europe, lessons learnt from EJP Soil and other soil root studies

     Conveners: J. Mayer (Agroscope, Switzerland), I. Bertrand (INRAE UMR Eco&Soils, France) & R. Hood-Nowotni (BOKU, Austria)

To mitigate climate change, C sequestration and the implementation of negative emission technologies are essential. Sequestering C in soils through increased belowground sequestration, specifically by enhancing root carbon inputs from cropping systems, could significantly contribute to protect and increase soil organic C (SOC) stocks, in line with the 4 per mil initiative. A promising yet often overlooked practice involves increasing and deepening root production and rhizodeposition of both main and cover crops in extensive and intensive cropping systems. The main practices to do so are for instance the selection of plant genotypes, plant mixtures with complementarity of root system depth, mixture of perennial and annual plants in agroforestry systems etc.

This session invites contributions on topics such as measuring root traits, root biomass, root stoichiometry, root architecture, isotope labeling, and rhizodeposition to better understand soil functions. These topics should be considered alongside environmental factors like soil type, strength, and fertility to predict the impact of root systems on SOC stocks. The impetus for this session is that within the EJP-SOIL MIXROOT-C and MaxRoot-C projects, we developed and assessed methods to estimate root carbon inputs of staple and novel crops in cropland, grassland, and agroforestry systems across Europe. We are keen to expand this network and welcome contributions from ongoing projects that may be of interest to the root community, as well as presentations of initial data or approaches from those working on modeling.

Our goal is to advance current knowledge and evaluate the potential impact of promising carbon sequestering management interventions, such as land use, targeted breeding, and soil management. These practices aim for widespread adoption of more sustainable carbon sequestering and soil restorative methods in diverse agricultural production systems.

 

GT 4. Soil Biology & Microbiology

 

GT 5. Soil Hydrology & Erosion

 

GT 6. Soil Productive Sectors: Economy and Sustainability

 

GT 7. Soil Amendments & Fertilizers

 

     Session 7.1. Valorization of Chars as Soil Amendments and Impact on the Soil-Plant-Microorganism System

     Conveners: F.J. Moreno-Racero (IG-CSIC, Spain) & H. Knicker (IG-CSIC, Spain)

The term "biomass" encompasses the biodegradable components of products, leftovers, and residual materials of biological origin derived from agriculture, forestry, and related sectors, including fisheries, aquaculture, as well as the biodegradable fractions of industrial and municipal waste. Focusing on valorization and within the framework of a circular economy, converting biomass residues into high-value-added products offers significant environmental and socioeconomic benefits, making it a topic of substantial scientific interest. Thermochemical conversion methods, such as hydrothermal carbonization and pyrolysis, provide promising avenues for utilizing waste biomass to produce valuable products. These processes convert biomass into hydrochars and pyrochars—carbon-rich solid products—that can be used as soil amendments to improve or restore soil functions and fertility. Additionally, they exhibit the potential to increase microbial abundance, activity, and quality, as well as enhance crop production. However, the production, physical and chemical characterization of these carbons, along with their potential impact on the soil-plant-microorganism system, require further exploration by the scientific community.

We warmly invite researchers interested in these topics to participate, and we particularly encourage contributions in the following areas: Production and physical-chemical characterization of chars; Study of the impact of organic amendments on soil microbial quality and/or quantity, including results on microbial biomass quantification, phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis, enzymatic activities, respiration, metagenomic analysis, and microbial diversity; Effect of char application on plant growth, production, and productivity, with a focus on investigating their effects on plant physiology, development, stress response, water status, and nutrient and water use efficiency; Impact of amendments on the soil-plant-microorganism system as a complete and interconnected system, addressing results at both the local and holistic levels; Research on agricultural and environmental applications.

 

     Session 7.2. Circular economy approaches for sustainable crop fertilization and soil health

     Conveners: A. Delgado (Univ. de Sevilla, Spain) & A. Laudicina (Univ. degli Studi di Palermo, Italy)

Nutrients are critical resources for agriculture and, therefore, for ensuring global food security. Nitrogen and phosphorus are non-renewable resources that are inefficiently used on a societal scale. Nitrogen fertilizers production dependent on enormous energy consumption, while that of phosphorus fertilizers rely on mine resources concentrated in a few countries. This explains the upward trend in prices and makes the fertilizer market very sensitive to geopolitical issues, which can seriously affect food systems around the world.

Ensuring food security with more sustainable agricultural systems therefore requires innovative approaches that integrate circular economy principles into crop fertilization while contributing to soil functioning and the resilience of agricultural production to climate change. This should rely on valorizing nutrient rich streams from different stages of the food chain and from wastewater, transforming them into alternative fertilizers, the so-called bio-based fertilizers (BBF), and amendments. Treatments can involve physical, chemical, and/or biological treatments, between them composting and vermicomposting.

Biobased-fertilizers will minimize the use of non-renewable and strategic resources in agriculture, ensuring food security, and can actively contribute to improving soil health ensuring the essential ecosystem services it provides, not only primary productivity but also others such as climate change mitigation.

We cordially welcome researchers working in these fields to take part in the session and especially invite contributions focusing on the following areas: use of recycled by-products in agriculture, alternative fertilizers, new methods for producing recycled (bio-based) fertilizers and amendments, integration recycled by-products in sustainable agricultural practices, and improvement of soil health with recycled materials.

 

GT 8. Soil-Plant-Water Interactions

 

     Session 8.1. Linking vegetation indices and soil properties: Advances in measurement, monitoring, and modeling

     Conveners: A. Horel & Z. Bakacsi (Institute for Soil Sci., Hungary)

Measuring, monitoring, and modeling soil and plant properties is essential for understanding ecosystem health and optimizing agricultural productivity. Land management under changing environmental conditions, especially the changing climate, needs additional attention. Since systematic measurements of soil properties can be labor-intensive and expensive, new methods are being continuously sought to shorten the required time and effort, thereby reducing the associated costs. Hence, advances in recent technologies and methods such as remote sensing, machine learning, and mathematical modeling are improving our ability to predict soil and plant dynamics at multiple scales. This session aims to gather presentations where our understanding of the soil and plant interaction is enhanced by new methods, technology, or reevaluating collected data.

 

GT 9. Soil Health

 

     Session 9.1. Soil Health indicators and thresholds

     Conveners: F. González (Evenor-Tech, Spain)

 

     Session 9.2. Soil health monitoring

     Conveners: F. González (Evenor-Tech, Spain)

 

     Session 9.3. Soil health management strategies and policies

     Conveners: F. González (Evenor-Tech, Spain)

 

     Session 9.4. Missions to Protect Soil

     Conveners: The British Society of Soil Science. Chair: P. Hallett (Univ. Aberdeen, UK)

Protecting soil has been a central theme of many new funding initiatives across European nations and from EU Horizon2020, and a new Soil Health Charter to be launched by the British Society of Soil Science. This session will provide an overview to these diverse programmes, hearing from both well-established projects and those are about to kick-off.  After brief overviews from each project, a panel session featuring the speakers will discuss their team’s research and its potential impact in protecting soils.  Topics will include cutting-edge technologies to monitor, measure, model and map soils, soils as part of the broader landscape and the interaction with people, emerging challenges such as new pollutants, and the role of soils in biodiversity, climate change and ecosystem services like pollinators.

 

     Session 9.5. Soil Functions and Ecosystem Services in a Changing Environment

     Conveners: M. Muñoz-Rojas (IRNAS-CSIC, Spain) & P. Pereira (Mikolaq Romeris Univ., Lithuania)

Soils are fundamental to delivering various ecosystem services, including food and fibre production, nutrient cycling, erosion control, water purification, and carbon sequestration. As such, they are vital to human well-being.  However, unsustainable soil use is a major driver of land degradation, manifesting through erosion, sealing, pollution, salinization, and increased vulnerability to wildfires. These processes are closely linked to two of the most pressing challenges of our time: biodiversity loss and climate change. Addressing this unprecedented trend of soil degradation—primarily driven by human activity—requires a global, coordinated effort to preserve soil functions and the services they provide and biodiversity. This is especially urgent in the context of growing populations and consumption patterns that are placing unsustainable pressure on natural resources. Innovative and effective soil management strategies are urgently needed to safeguard soil health and ensure long-term sustainability. In this session, we welcome contributions covering inter- and transdisciplinary research through observational, theoretical, and applied studies on soil ecosystem services and their function in a changing global environment. Topics of interest are (although not limited to): 1) Impacts of soil degradation on soil function and ecosystem services such as Climate neutrality and 2) Soil conservation and restoration actions for maintaining ecosystem services and promoting soil biodiversity (including research, management, education and policy), 3) soil carbon sequestration related to land management practices and 4) integration of digital tools to support soil ecosystem services provisioning. 

 

GT 10. Soil Carbon Dynamics and Stabilization

 

     Session 10.1. Imaging Techniques to Characterize Soil Carbon at the Pedon to Micro Scale

     Conveners: S. O’Rourke (Univ. College Dublin, Ireland)

 

     Session 10.2. Advances in the In-situ Measurement of Soil Carbon and Agronomic Soil Properties by On-the-go Sensors (vis-NIR, MIR) and Sensor Networks

     Conveners: S. O’Rourke (Univ. College Dublin, Ireland)

 

 

GT 11. Soil Degradation, Desertification, Contamination - Conservation, Mitigation, Remediation

 

     Session 11.1. Soil Degradation Control and Reclamation of Degraded Lands

     Conveners: S. Norra (Univ. Karlsruhe, Germany) & A. Karczewska (Wroclaw Univ. Environ. Life Sci., Poland). From the IUSS3.5.

Soils all over the world, including in Europe, have been and are currently undergoing various processes of degradation and devastation. The share of different soil threats and different degradation mechanisms changes over time and new problems are constantly becoming the subject of interest for soil scientists. In addition to soil degradation related to the impact of various industrial activities, including mining and processing of natural resources, much attention is paid to threats resulting from agricultural practices, as well as those resulting from global environmental changes, including climate change. The EU Soil Protection Strategy pays special attention to the processes of erosion, loss of organic carbon, loss of biodiversity, soil sealing, soil compaction, salinization, landslides and floods, as well as soil contamination, which is the subject of a separate sub-session. Another currently important issue is the lack of water in the landscape causing the drying out of peat soils and the mineralisation of organic carbon. Counter actions are needed to keep the water in the landscape, to support carbon sequestration in soils and to improve soil biodiversity. Post-industrial areas require special measures that will lead to the reclamation of soils and their restoration to ensure optimal plant growth. This session is offered to bring together scientists from different perspectives of soil degradation control and reclamation of degraded lands not restricted to the above mentioned cases to generate synergistic approaches regarding the development of adapted and sustainable solutions.

 

     Session 11.2. Remediation of Contaminated Soils

     Conveners: A. Karczewska (Wroclaw Univ. Environ. Life Sci., Poland) & S. Norra (Univ. Karlsruhe, Germany). From the IUSS3.5.

Soil contamination is one of the key threats to soils, listed in the EU Soil Protection Strategy. Various hazardous substances can come from diffuse or local sources. Agriculture, especially intensive farming, can cause contamination of soil environment with toxic substances, e.g. pesticides, as well as other substances released during the movement of agricultural machinery. The problem of water eutrophication is a separate issue. Other diffuse sources of soil contamination are air-borne pollutants transported over long distances. Local soil contamination with inorganic and organic substances, such as potentially toxic metal(loid)s, cyanides, hydrocarbons or chlorinated compounds, is usually associated with industrial activity and waste disposal, often of historical origin, and additionally with failures and unforeseen situations, such as natural disasters. A special group of soil pollutants are emerging contaminants, i.e. natural and synthetic chemicals that are not routinely monitored or regulated in the environment, which may have adverse effects on biota and human health. This term covers a wide range of substances, including pharmaceuticals, hormones, personal care products, cosmetics, fragrances, plasticizers, flame retardants, surfactants, perfluoroalkyl compounds (PFAS), and various industrial products, as well as algal toxins. Excessively polluted soils, posing an unacceptable environmental risk, definitely require remediation. This session will be devoted to the presentation of research results and discussion on the fate of various contaminants in soils, assessment of contamination state and associated environmental risk, as well as related policies and legal regulations.  Various methods and effects of remediation of contaminated soils will be presented and discussed, taking into account both technical methods and nature-based methods, including bioremediation and phytoremediation.

 

GT 12. Soil Natural Hazards: Fires, Floodings, Landslides

 

GT 13. Land Fragmentation, Urban and Anthropogenic Soils

 

GT 14. Soil Data Acquisition, Curation, Sharing & Modelling

 

 

GT 15. Cross Cutting, Emerging & Transdisciplinary Topics in the Soil

 

     Session 15.1. Soils in Space Exploration

     Conveners: A.Z. Miller (IRNAS-CSIC, Spain) & J. Martín-Frias (IGEO-CSIC, Spain)

 

     Session 15.2. Soils and Volcanism

     Conveners: N.T. Jiménez-Morillo (IRNAS-CSIC, Spain) & 

 

GT 16. Connecting People and Soils

 

GT 17. EUrope: Research, Education, Communication & Policy

 

     Session 17.1. (Posible) Status of the World’s Soil Resources Report 2025

     Conveners: (ITPS & FAO-GSP)

 

     Session 17.2. Digital Soil Mapping and Innovative Soil Monitoring Systems in The EU

     Conveners: C. Schillaci (JRC EU Ispra, Italy), A. Jones  ( JRC EU Ispra, Italy) & P. Panagos (JRC EU Ispra, Italy)

The knowledge of the soil surveyor in the digital era has changed; thanks to the increased computational capacity of geographic information systems, legacy soil data are now seen as a treasure. The acquisition and interpretation of the soil properties and their changes over time could steer our understanding of earth processes and positively affect how we manage soil resources. Operational use of the DSM for precision farming is one of the main essential activities in today’s agriculture. This can benefit from many technological advances, such as remote sensing, digital dashboards, the web application of soil modelling and mapping and cloud computing. As highlighted in the new European Soil Strategy, to tackle climate change and environmental challenges, spatial soil information and updated soil maps are strongly needed. It also applies for tracking progress toward the SDGs, providing the broader soil user community with the soil knowledge and data flows required to safeguard soils.
This Session is welcoming contributions dealing with digital soil mapping, innovative soil monitoring and data management, legacy data digitalization from soil maps, the extraction of spatial knowledge from soil survey data and remote sensing.

 

     Session 17.3. Beyond dirt: Inspiring soil awareness through exploration, interaction and community initiatives.

     Conveners: K. Keiblinger, S. Huber  & R. Hood-Nowotny (BOKU, Austria).

Soils are facing increasing demands and threats such as the need for sustainable food production, contamination, and urbanization. Although the ecosystem services provided by soils are gradually being recognized, healthy soils are still not perceived as important as more tangible environmental rights such as clean air and water. This may be because we often associate soil with mud and dirt, overlooking its crucial role in the evolution and survival of humanity. To address these issues, both the EU Soil Strategy 2030 and the Mission Soil have made increasing soil awareness key objectives.

Given that introducing new topics into formal education curricula typically takes around ten years, and considering the growing awareness of the importance of involving a wide range of stakeholders in policy processes, informal education is a powerful way to foster a deeper appreciation and understanding of the role soils play in our ecosystem. Informal education encompasses a wide range of activities outside traditional classroom settings, making learning about soils accessible, engaging, and relevant to everyday life. These activities can include hands-on experiences such as soil sampling, composting demonstrations, and gardening projects. In addition to gaining practical skills, these activities can serve as hubs for innovation and networking, providing diverse insights and fostering a sense of community.

Eliciting a fascination with soil, its organisms, structure, and processes, as well as highlighting soils in literature and the arts, may also inspire people to connect with soils and reassess the value of healthy soils in their society.

In this session, we aim to showcase, explore, and share the various successes in achieving a connection with soil, through communication and engagement in both the informal and formal education sector or through community activities. 

 

5^th EUSO Stakeholders Forum - Cutting edge developments with the EU Soil Mission

     Conveners: P. Panagos (JRC), A. Jones (JRC), L. Alvarez Sanchez (DG AGRI).

The European Union Soil Observatory (EUSO) will host one day of its 5th Stakeholder Forum as an in-presence event in conjunction with EUROSOIL 2025. As an annual event, the forum provides a platform for dynamic interaction and knowledge sharing among the soil community, with a focus on the Soil Mission projects. We are now accepting abstract submissions that highlight innovative advancements and breakthroughs within the Soil Mission projects. Dates of other virtual EUSO Stakeholder Days in June and October will be announced shortly. Deadline for abstract submission for the event at EUROSOIL: 15.5.2025 Registration at EUROSOIL is necessary.

     Session 10.2. Advances in the In-situ Measurement of Soil Carbon and Agronomic Soil Properties by On-the-go Sensors (vis-NIR, MIR) and Sensor Networks

     Conveners: S. O’Rourke (Univ. College Dublin, Ireland)