IUSS Alerts 2021-2022 Archivi - iuss.org

IUSS Alert 210 (December 2022)

Secretariat — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 10:50:32 +0000

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IUSS News

New IUSS Secretariat from January 2023

After a lengthy selection procedure, which started with a call in April receiving three applications followed by an online hearing and an evaluation carried out by the IUSS Executive Committee, the Full members approved by vast majority the recommendation of the Executive Committee to select CREA (Council for Agricultural Research and Economics of Italy) in Rome, as the new host of the IUSS Secretariat. The handover to the new Secretariat will take place in January.

Farewell from the current IUSS Secretariat

It is with lots of enthusiasm and dedication that Sigbert Huber and his team have run the IUSS Secretariat from 2015 in Vienna. Starting out with the Inter-Congress Meeting in Rio and the WCSS21 in Rio, followed by an IC meeting in Glasgow the term has ended with a very successful WCSS22 in Glasgow. They produced 96 Alerts and 16 Bulletins and organised several elections of IUSS officers and honorary members under the leadership of four different IUSS Presidents. These eight years of service have seen a number of changes such as two relaunches of the IUSS website, opening of a Twitter and a YouTube channel, launching of an IUSS book series under the framework of the International Decade of Soils 2015-2024 and the development of the IUSS Strategic Plan 2021-2030. During this term, new bonds were forged with national and international organisations in the common goal to protect the resource soil.

We wish all IUSS members Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2023!

All the best to the incoming IUSS Secretariat!

News regarding WCSS 2022

World Congress 2022 Attendees

The World Congress of Soil Science 2022 was an extraordinary event of global significance, and we have collected a variety of ED&I data to support those delivering future congresses. All graphics can be found on the WCSS22 page on the BSSS website.

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IUSS Alert 209 (November 2022)

Secretariat — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 10:47:22 +0000

Download the IUSS Soilutions Calender (59MB)

IUSS News

Personal histories videos of leading senior soil scientists uploaded

As part of a suite of projects established to help commemorate the Centenary of the IUSS in May 2024, the IUSS Executive Committee with the support of the National Soil Science Societies is creating a Collection of Personal Histories of leading senior soil scientists, who contributed to the development of the former International Soil Science Society (ISSS) and the transition to the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS).

All the videos regarding the personal histories received so far have been uploaded in an own playlist on the IUSS YouTube channel: Personal Histories – YouTube

If further National Soil Science Societies would like to provide such videos of interviews with leading senior soil scientists, please contact the IUSS Secretariat for further details at iuss@umweltbundesamt.at.

More videos related to the IUSS can be found here: IUSS Channel – YouTube

News from national soil science societies

Dokuchaev Soil Science Society

The VIII Congress of the Dokuchaev Soil Science Society was held on the 10-14^th of August 2022 in Syktyvkar, Komi Republic, Russian Federation. Initially, it was planned to be held in 2020 but the date was shifted because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The work of the Congress took place in a hybrid format: participants and delegates of the congress who could not come to Syktyvkar to take part in person were given the opportunity to make reports and listen to their colleagues online. The congress programme included young scientists’ soil judging competition, a plenary session, work of seven symposiums, two round tables, mid-congress and post-congress scientific field excursions. The subjects of the reports touched upon all topical issues of soil and environmental research, climate change and the state of the biosphere, agro-economic assessment of soils, degradation and restoration of soil cover.

The new Central Council of the society was elected. The Congress expressed many thanks to Prof. Sergey Shoba for his many years of activity as the President of the Dokuchaev SSS. The new President was elected – Prof. Pavel Krasilnikov.

The next IX Congress of the Dokuchaev Soil Science Society will be held in 2024 in Kazan, Tatarstan Republic, Russian Federation.

General News

World Soil Day 2022 | 5 December

Communication Package

Take a virtual journey into soils and enjoy our new multilingual website. This brings FAO and our work closer to the public. On the Campaign page you will find a range of multilingual communication products. You can also inspire action by sharing on social media material from our TRELLO BOARD.

Fun Activities for Adults and Youth – From Soil to Plate Contest

This World Soil Day 2022 gives us a chance to show how nutritious food can become when grown on soil that is rich and healthy. Under the motto “Soils, where food begins” this food contest is an opportunity to celebrate the richness of our soils coinciding the 10th anniversary of the FAO Global Soil Partnership… What better reason to start the celebrations than by preparing dishes with food from healthy soils?

[From Global Soil Partnership (GSP) Special announcement No. 43, November 2022]

Call for Papers “Optimizing the Use of Organic Amendments to Meet Climate-Smart Agriculture and Soil Fertility Goals.”

As the editors of the recently launched research collection, “Optimizing the Use of Organic Amendments to Meet Climate-Smart Agriculture and Soil Fertility Goals.” we kindly invite you to contribute to this important, up-to-date, and impactful collection of research on this topic. Alongside a top group of authors, you will have the choice to publish your work in Frontiers in Agronomy or Frontiers in Soil Science, both young multidisciplinary journals led by top researchers in the field.

Abstract Submission Deadline: 20 December 2022

Manuscript Submission Deadline: 19 April 2023

EGU 2023 – Call for abstracts is now open

The EGU General Assembly 2023 will bring back many of the features the EGU community enjoyed before the pandemic, including: orals, posters, and, PICO sessions, in a new hybrid format, as well as a wide variety of networking opportunities.

Apply for financial support by submitting your abstract by 1 December 2022, 13:00 CET (https://egu23.eu/guidelines/supports_and_waivers.html).

Submit your abstract to a SSS session by 10 January 2023, 13:00 CET. Instructions on how to submit an abstract can be found at https://egu23.eu/programme/how_to_submit.html.

If you need a registration fee waiver to attend EGU23, apply for financial support with your abstract submission by 1 December 2022, 13:00 CET (https://egu23.eu/guidelines/supports_and_waivers.html).

More info about the EGU23 format can be found at https://egu23.eu/about/meeting_format.html. If you have any questions, please contact egu23@copernicus.org.

News from the International Science Council (ISC)

Join the IUPAC Global Women’s Breakfast 2023

ISC Member, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), is inviting all ISC Members and their networks to join the IUPAC Global Women’s Breakfast (GWB) on 14 February 2023. Under the theme “Breaking Barriers in Science” #GWB2023 is held in conjunction with the United Nations Day of Women and Girls in Science. It is also a flagship event of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development, reaching out beyond chemistry to all stakeholders across science. Browse the online map to find a global breakfast event near you or become an event organizer and register your event on the GWB page: https://council.science/events/iupac-gwb-2023/.

Call for nominations for the World Data System Scientific Committee

The World Data System Scientific Committee (WDS SC) is seeking nominations for candidates to replace one vacancy on the Scientific Committee. The term of this position will be from 1 February 2023 to 30 June 2024.

To maintain diversity on the Scientific committee, we encourage nominations particularly focusing on females, and underrepresented geographic regions including the Global South. All scientific disciplines are welcome.

Deadline: 20 January 2023

sOilFauna project: How human activities impact soil macrofauna communities and how it relates to primary productivity

In this latest issue of the GSBI Blog “Beneath Our Feet” Jérôme Mathieu (Sorbonne University, Paris) and Nico Eisenhauer (sDiv, Leipzig) discuss the sOilFauna project, the MACROFAUNA database, and the questions of human activity and primary productivity they are addressing.

[From GSBI Newsletter – November 2022]

What is a soil carbon credit?

Agriculture is essential to ensuring global food security. However, the agricultural industry is also one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Some agricultural practices can release carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane into the atmosphere. Incentivizing climate-smart farming practices by creating “soil carbon credits” is one way to reduce the impact of agriculture on the environment.

[From ASA, CSSA, SSSA Science Policy Report, November 23, 2022]

Conferences, Meetings and Workshops

Due to the Corona pandemic and ensuing travel restrictions many of the events planned for 2020 and 2021 had to be cancelled or postponed. For a current list of upcoming events, please consult the IUSS website: https://www.iuss.org/meetings-events/

2022

World Soil Day 2022 event 5 December

5 December 2022 is World Soil Day (WSD), the United Nations date that celebrates healthy soils for a healthy life. The FAO Director-General will be joined by high-level speakers and thousands of soil enthusiasts. Artistic performances and keynotes will enliven the ceremony. Finally, the winners of the Glinka World Soil Prize and FAO’s King Bhumibol WSD Award will be unveiled and two flagship publications launched.

2023

4th SUITMA Seminar

January 13th, 2023

Toruń, Poland

Format: hybrid (in-person and online)

On behalf of the Research Team EF „Soil science, microbiology, agricultural genetics and food quality”, Bydgoszcz-Toruń Branch of the Polish Soil Science Society and the Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, we cordially invite you to the SUITMA International Seminar, focused on current problems of urban, industrial, traffic, mining and military areas soils research.

Deadline for registration with presentation (abstracts up to 300 words) – December 15th, 2022

Registration: https://forms.gle/sSfLFiX3qdnXUVNM7

BONARES Conference 2023 – Soil as a Sustainable Resource

15-17 May 2023

Berlin, Germany

A sustainable bioeconomy requires integration of soil productivity with a wide range of other soil functions including nutrient cycling, carbon storage, water retention and filtering as well as being the habitat of a myriad of organisms and enabling their activities. The conference will bring together researchers from various disciplines related to soil and plant sciences and agronomy to discuss strategies towards a (multi)functionality of soil ecosystems taking also constraints of climate and global change into account. The conference aims at providing solutions for a sustainable soil management including climate change adaptation, which requires an understanding of soils at a systemic level and to assess their value in a socio-economic framework. We are looking forward to welcome interested scientists as well as stakeholders in the field of soil management for inspiring discussions.

We welcome contributions (oral presentations and posters) to the following topics:

1. Impact of agriculture and cropping systems on soil functions
2. Carbon and nutrient cycling in soils: Processes and interactions in a changing world
3. Soil biomes and multifunctionality of soils
4. Soil degradation and sustainable soil management in agricultural landscapes
5. Model-based prediction of the dynamics of soil functions
6. Using soil sensing technologies for soil mapping, modelling and decision making in agriculture
7. Soils as a key to climate change mitigation: private and public governance instruments to unlock the potential
8. Data challenges and solutions

Abstract submission deadline: January 10, 2023

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IUSS Alert 208 (October 2022)

Secretariat — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 10:43:24 +0000

Download the IUSS Soilutions Calender (59MB)

IUSS News

Outcome of 2022 IUSS Presidential Election

Victor Okechukwu Chude from Nigeria, former President of the Soil Society of Nigeria, received 47 votes in his favour, no votes against and no abstaining votes. All votes cast equal 61% of the Council members.

He will take up the position of President-Elect on 1st January, 2023.He will be the first African IUSS President (2025/26) in the history of IUSS and will celebrate with us the next WCSS in China in 2026.

Let us congratulate him on this success!

If you want to know more about Prof. Chude, please click here: https://www.iuss.org/about-the-iuss/iuss-presidential-election/.

News from national soil science societies

Soil Science Society of China

Newsletter Vol.5 and Vol.6 recently launched

The two most recent newsletters of the Soil Science Society of China are now available online. Policy highlights include the passing of a new law to strengthen black soil protection.

General News

Global assessment of storm disaster-prone area

Rainfall Erosivity Density (RED) is a measure of rainstorm aggressiveness and a proxy indicator of damaging hydrological events. By using measured Rainfall Erosivity Density (RED) for 3,625 raingauges worldwide and applying kriging methodologies, we could identify the damaging hydrological hazard-prone areas that exceed warning and alert thresholds (1.5 and 3.0 hm-2 h-1 yr-1, respectively). In this study, we analysed the spatial pattern of hydrological hazard associated with rainfall erosivity with a global-scale visualisation. The results indicated that about 31% and 19% of the world’s land area have a greater than 50% probability of exceeding the warning and alert thresholds. Data available:

[From ESDAC Newsletter 146, October 2022]

Land and Soil Management Award

The European Land Owners Organisation (ELO) is going to reward land use and soil management practices mitigating soil threats. You can apply for this award until 15 January 2023. The award is bestowed to the winner every year during the Forum for the Future of Agriculture.

[From ESDAC Newsletter 146, October 2022]

Phosphorus budget and P stocks

We estimate the Phosphorus (P) budget from agricultural lands of EU and UK (ca. 173 million ha). This takes into account the P inputs (fertilizers, manure, chemical weathering, atmospheric deposition) and the P outputs (crop production, plant residues removal, losses by erosion) for the period 2011–2019. The P budget and the P inputs/outputs are available at NUTS2 (Regional scale) and country scale. In addition, we estimate the P displacement and losses due to water erosion at catchment scale and aggregate them at sea outlet. We make also the datasets for both Total P and Available P (Olsen) concentration and stocks available. More details of the empirical model is given in the published study.

Data available: https://esdac.jrc.ec.europa.eu/content/phosphorus-budget-and-p-stocks [From ESDAC Newsletter 145, September 2022]

Call for costs of sediments removal

The EUSO Working group on soil erosion addresses the question on the costs of sediments removal. This WG will develop a study on estimating the off-site costs of soil erosion. Therefore, there is a call for data on the costs of removing sediments from dams, ports, rivers, etc. In case you are aware of studies or reports quantifying the costs of removing sediments (or energy revenue costs due to sedimentation), please contact the WG chair: panos.panagos@ec.europa.eu. The overall objective is to have a pan European estimation of sediments removal. The topic will be also addressed during the WG soil erosion session on 26th October 2022.

[From ESDAC Newsletter 145, September 2022]

BBC The Compass talks “The Living Soil”

This past month the BBC World Service’s The Compass podcast featured stories on “The Living Soil”. These episodes feature researchers and practitioners whose work focuses on the importance of soil life and its protection.

[From GSBI Newsletter – October 2022]

Soil macroinvertebrate communities: A world-wide assessment

Read the article by Patrick Lavell and colleagues in Global Ecology and Biogeography.

Macroinvertebrates comprise a highly diverse set of taxa with great potential as indicators of soil quality. Communities were sampled at 3,694 sites distributed world-wide. We aimed to analyse the patterns of abundance, composition and network characteristics and their relationships to latitude, mean annual temperature and rainfall, land cover, soil texture and agricultural practices.

[From GSBI Newsletter – October 2022]

2023 GFFA Science Slam – Apply now!

Dear students, doctoral researchers, young scientists and postdocs,

We would like to invite you to apply to perform at the GFFA Science Slam in Berlin on 20 January 2023. You will present your research project live in front of a great audience. As slammer, you will also get a booth at the Innovation Forum on 19 and 20 January to present your research subject to visitors. Upon your successful application, accommodation and travel expenses will be covered.

The GFFA Science Slam is a competition during which presenters (“slammers”) introduce their scientific research topics, which should match the GFFA topic, in an entertaining way. The focus is on giving a diverse, primarily non-expert audience the opportunity to learn scientific concepts. The audience then votes on the slams, judging them not only on scientific content but also on comprehensibility and on their entertainment value. The presentation with the highest audience rating receives a prize at the end of the event. You can watch the 2022 GFFA Science Slam (virtual event) on the GFFA Review website and get impressions of the GFFA Science Slam 2020 (in presence) here.

Apply here with your research subject, your slam concept and a short introduction video of yourself by latest 12 November 2022!

For more information on the topic look at the background paper or visit the GFFA homepage.

2022 Earth Week Webinars

The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) hosted a webinar titled “Updating Soil Survey to Meet Dynamic New Challenges and Sustainable Soils for a Sustainable Planet”.

This was the final webinar in the 2022 Earth Science Week series. It highlighted the importance of maintaining soil quality and how to do so sustainably, such as by incorporating organisms into the soil food web to enhance soil quality. The speakers also showcased the use of GIS in mapping soils, with a case study on a project in Kansas that focuses on the Keith soil series.

[From ASA, CSSA, SSSA Science Policy Report, October 26, 2022]

What is blue carbon, and why is it important?

“Blue carbon” is a term for carbon captured by the world’s oceans and coastal ecosystems. Mangrove forests, tidal marshes, and seagrass beds are the main vegetated coastal areas that store vast amounts of blue carbon. It’s not really blue – it’s named after the color of the ocean. Blue carbon is an important tool in reducing the effects of climate change.

[From ASA, CSSA, SSSA Science Policy Report, October 26, 2022]

Conferences, Meetings and Workshops

2022

1st Brazilian Meeting of Soil Micromorphology

11 to 15 November 2022

São Paulo, Brazil

The mini course and the event itself will be held in the premises of the Luiz de Queiroz School of Agriculture (ESALQ) in Piracicaba, University of São Paulo (USP). The tour will travel a route between Piracicaba, São Pedro and Itaqueri da Serra, showing the microstructures of soil profiles and their relations with the landscapes.

Website: http://rbms.esalq.usp.br/

Webinar on mercury contaminated sites

14 December 2022

3 to 5 pm Central Europe Time

Simultaneous translation English / Spanish will be organized.

The program will be available in early November.

The COMMON FORUM on Contaminated Land Management in Europe (www.commonforum.eu), the Latin American Network for the Prevention and Management of Contaminated Sites – ReLASC (www.relasc.org), and the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention (www.mercuryconvention.org) share an interest to exchange regarding the implementation of the Minamata convention, in particular as well in developing cooperation to countries and colleagues in Latin-America.

Two main topics will be addressed through the presentation of concrete cases and interventions of experts: polluted sites by chlor-alkali-plants and remediation of mercury polluted sites.

2023

Intersol 2023 – Soil: a springboard for the transition of territories

28-30 March 2023

Lille, France

Deadline for submission of papers: December 12, 2022

Topics of the conference:

• Sustainable soil management • Diagnosis and treatment of pollutants in soils • Territorial planning and conversion of sites • Biodiversity and environmental risks • Regulatory and legal news • Special session: young researchers, creators of innovation, startups

InterPore2023

22-25 May 2023

Edinburgh, Scotland

Deadline for submitting abstracts: Monday, 12 December 2022

Event page: www.interpore.org/2023 Flyer: https://www.iuss.org/media/interpore2023_flyer_compressed.pdf

4^th Global Soil Security Conference (GSS2023) – Global Soil Security: Beyond the Soil

26–29 June 2023

Seoul, Korea

Deadline for Abstract submission: March 31, 2023

Deadline for registration: June 16, 2023

Soil security has become the central dogma of the sustainable soil management that should integrate the roles of soil functions for soil health, ecosystem services, climate change and human health. We will tailor the GSS 2023 programs specifically to connecting soil security to the theme of GSS 2023.

First Announcement: https://www.iuss.org/media/gss_2023_1st_announcement_0928.pdf

Conference website: https://www.gss2023.org

2024

ISMOM 2024 – 9th International Symposium of Interactions of Soil Minerals with Organic Components and Microorganisms

10-14 October 2024

Tsukuba, Japan

Following the spirit of ISMOM, we plan to put a focus on “aggregate” or “soil structure” as the physical constraints for the interactions among minerals, organic matter, and microbes in soil. Among regular topics of ISMOM, we also hope to cover topics associated with volcanic soil and paddy soil. You will have a chance to see these soils in the landscape at the post-conference field trip (October 15-17).

For the complete list of upcoming events, please see the event calendar on the IUSS website: https://www.iuss.org/meetings-events/

New publications

Soil for Nutrition: state of the art

FAO, 2022. Rome, Italy. 96 pages, ISBN: 978-92-5-136610-3.

Food starts with soils, and as the target date to accomplish the SDGs grows closer, it is more urgent than ever to reverse soil degradation and tackle its effects on agrifood systems. This booklet aims to review the role of soil fertility in producing sufficient, safe, and more nourishing food for healthier plants, animals, and people. It also offers recommendations for solutions that can provide a more nutritious agrifood system for enhancing human health and wellbeing while protecting the environment. Soil fertility and nutrition involve processes at scales ranging from molecules to the entire planet. Our interventions in these processes may exacerbate the global challenges we face but can also be modified to solve them. This booklet contributes to understanding processes related to soil fertility from the perspectives of food production and food security, and the environmental and climate change impacts associated with fertilizer misuse and overuse. The booklet also outlines the main areas of opportunity and the way forward to solve the nutrient imbalance prevailing in our current agrifood systems.

Download: https://www.fao.org/3/cc0900en/cc0900en.pdf or https://doi.org/10.4060/cc0900en.

Improving soil health

Edited by Prof. William R. Horwath, University of California-Davis, USA. Published by Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing on 11 October 2022, 470 pages, ISBN-13: 9781786766700, hard cover: GBP 150.00.

The book provides a considered assessment of key management strategies to enhance the physical, chemical and biological health of soils in achieving sustainable improvements in crop yields. The book reviews the role of cultivation practices as well as organic and other soil amendments, such as biofertilizers. By assessing the dimensions of soil health, and reviewing the wealth of evidence on how well individual techniques contribute to improving soil, the book shows how farmers can achieve sustainable improvements in both productivity and profitability.

*Special Offer*

Receive 20% off your purchase of the book using code ISH20 via the BDS Website. Discount code expires 31^st December 2022.

Micronutrient Fertilizer Use in Pakistan

Historical Perspective and 4R Nutrient Stewardship

By Abdul Rashid, Munir Zia, Waqar Ahmad. First edition published September 13, 2022 by CRC Press, 340 Pages 11 B/W Illustrations, ISBN 9781032307626. Price hardback GBP 104.00 (excl. sales tax); VitalSource eBook: purchase GBP 35.99, 6-month rental GBP 24.75.

Micronutrient research has been an important component of the soil fertility and plant nutrition program in Pakistan since the identification of zinc deficiency in rice in 1969. Since then, considerable progress has been made on diagnosis and management of micronutrient nutrition problems in crops. However, now there is growing R&D evidence that micronutrient malnutrition in humans could be addressed through enriching staple food grains with micronutrients.

This book presents the latest R&D information on micronutrient problems in crop plants/cropping systems and their corrective measures. The current status, the constraints, and economic benefits of using micronutrient fertilizers for optimizing crop productivity and soil resource sustainability are discussed along with estimating future potential requirement of micronutrient fertilizers to optimize crop productivity, produce quality, and soil resource sustainability.

Job offers

If you are interested in working in soil sciences and related fields of expertise, please see current job offers at: https://www.iuss.org/jobs/

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L'articolo IUSS Alert 208 (October 2022) proviene da iuss.org.

IUSS Alert 207 (September 2022)

Secretariat — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 10:39:36 +0000

Download the IUSS Soilutions Calender (59MB)

IUSS News

Call for contributions for IUSS Bulletin 141

The IUSS Secretariat (iuss@umweltbundesamt.at) kindly invites all IUSS members to submit contributions for our next IUSS Bulletin 141 (to be published in December 2022) no later than 31 October 2022. In particular, the Secretariat would welcome conference/meeting reports and reports on activities dedicated to the International Decade of Soils (2015-2024), and any other information you would like to share with the international soil science community. National soil science societies are encouraged to present their recent activities. Please make sure to send high-resolution photos only together with the copyright information (owner of the photos).

World Congress of Soil Science (WCSS22)

With the World Congress of Soil Science 2022, held in Glasgow 31 July to the 5 August, now behind us we, the British Society of Soil Science, as hosts would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that supported and contributed to this special event. Alongside the scientific programme there was also a ground-breaking policy session, the first of its kind for a WCSS, exhibition, soil judging competition, tours offerings, fringe event programme, and arts, cultural and outreach offerings. Whether you were part of the organising committee(s), chair or vice- chair, convenor, speaker or presenter, exhibitor, volunteer, or simply an attendee, everyone coming together, especially after the last couple of years, truly made the Congress one for the record books.

We would also like to take this moment to thank IUSS Council for selecting us as hosts of the 22^nd WCSS and for the Executive Committee’s support throughout our journey to delivering the Congress, Speakeasy our event co-ordinators for their professional operational support, and all other sponsor and partner organisations that made everything possible.

In the coming weeks and months as we seek to collate information and crystallise outcomes from the Congress, we will continue to seek to secure a legacy from WCSS22 to support and promote continued developments in soil science and further afield. We will communicate how you can access these archives in the coming months, but in the meantime you can view some information here. We will also wholeheartedly be supporting the organisers of the 23^rd (Nanjing, China) and 24^th (Toronto, Canada) WCSSs in delivering long-lasting impacts from the series.

STOP SOIL DEGRADATION and the IUSS’s EDUCATIVE PROJECT TO ACHIEVE IT

Children’s booklet contest on Soils: where food begins

Following the activities from the IUSS GOES TO THE SCHOOL educative project, and in the framework of World Soil Day 2022, FAO, the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) and the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) are launching a scientific children’s booklet contest on soils for nutrition with the motto “Soils: Where food begins”. Submissions should be sent by 18 November 2022.

News from national soil science societies

British Society of Soil Science (BSSS)

Introduction to Agricultural Land Classification

We are running the Introduction to Agricultural Land Classification (ALC) course virtually over three half-day sessions from 22 – 24 November. This training course, designed and presented by ALC experts from Natural England, the Welsh Government and commercial consultancy, offers a unique opportunity to learn about the background and technical basis of the current ALC guidelines.

Award Nomination: Life on Land

Life on Land has been nominated for an award at the Earth Futures Festival 2022. Released ahead of WCSS22, the short video highlights the importance of soil in delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goal of Life on Land (SDG 15).

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qs-lqoe7Lc&list=PL1MnnrWVUv1ld03Z7VRdxJXAZdEkFE63P

The Tours Triumph!

Following some fantastic post-congress tours, the NNR team at NatureScot give an overview of the Stirling Tour in their blog, Celebrating Soil. SRUC’s Davy McCracken also highlights the North Scotland tour in his article in The Press and Journal.

Malaysian Society of Soil Science (MSSS)

The two most recent newsletters of the Malaysian Society of Soil Science are now available on the IUSS website. Issue 1, 2022, contains a report about the 51st MSSS Annual General Meeting, the Soil Familiarisation Tour 2022: Calcareous and In-land Soil, and a number of outreach programmes and how organic farming can contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals, and many other interesting articles. Issue 2, 2022, gives an account of nutrient management by local farmers, the Youth and Agriculture Forum 2021 and a National Webinar on 2021 World Soil Day, among others.

Ukrainian Society of Soil Scientists and Agrochemists (USSSA)

The Ukrainian Society of Soil Scientists and Agrochemists in collaboration with the NSC ISSAR, organize the online International Scientific & Practical Conference “The current state of the soil cover of Ukraine under conditions of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation” to be held on October 20, 2022. The IUSS President will be opening the Conference.

General News

WORLD SOIL DAY – 5 DECEMBER 2022 – SOILS, WHERE FOOD BEGINS

5 December 2022 is the United Nations World Soil Day (WSD). This year’s campaign, “Soils, where food begins” highlights the value of soil for food production, better nutrition, and healthy diets.

The soil beneath our feet is a world made up of organisms, minerals, and organic matter that supply humans and animals with food through plant growth. Just like us, soils need balanced and varied input of nutrient in appropriate quantities to be healthy. When crops are harvested, nutrients are removed from the soil. Nutrient deficient soils produce nutrient deficient plants, causing hidden hunger for more than 2 billion people worldwide.

Soils have no borders and are at risk. This year’s WSD will focus on the importance of soils for nutrition while serving as a call to action and empathy for those who bear the brunt of these threats.

DISCOVER OUR CAMPAIGN MATERIAL

Are you planning an event or an outreach activity? Mark your agenda, alert your audience, contact your local, regional and global advocates and make use of the free campaign toolkit (all files are print-ready).

PIN YOUR EVENT ON THE MAP!

If you haven’t done so yet, register your event on the World Soil Day map! Don’t forget to share photos of your event on social media using the hashtags #WorldSoilDay and #Soils4Nutrition.

[Global Soil Partnership (GSP) Special announcement No. 42, September 2022]

WORLD SOIL DAY CONTESTS – EDITION 2022

The success of the World Soil Day depends on you and everyone’s involvement! During the second half of the year, the World Soil Day campaign is marked by a number of events, actions and initiatives to raise awareness of the potentials and challenges for sustainable soil management, facilitate dialogue among actors and promote innovative solutions for nurturing cooperation on soil.

In the framework of World Soil Day – 5 December 2022, IUSS invites you to participate in a Soil cake contest launched by the FAO and its Global Soil Partnership (GSP).

Deadline: 10 December 2022

#TheSoilIsLife #TogetherWeAreStronger

Another event is a poster drawing contest for kids. In addition, following the activities from the IUSS GOES TO THE SCHOOL educative project, and in the framework of World Soil Day 2022, FAO, the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) and the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) are launching a scientific children’s booklet contest on soils for nutrition with the motto “Soils: Where food begins”.

Deadline for poster drawing and children’s booklet contest: 18 November 2022

CNBC Short Documentary on Soil

CNBC recently released Why The World Is Running Out Of Soil, a short documentary. Including Ronald Vargas from the Food and Agriculture Organization, the programme outlines why we are facing a silent soil crisis, how soil can be saved and what it means for the world.

Watch the documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJhpoYwAqFA

LUCAS 2018 TOPSOIL dataset

Topsoil data for 18,984 samples from LUCAS 2018 are available as a CSV file and, to facilitate use of the data, an ESRI shapefile containing the theoretical points to which the taken samples. The measured properties include: pH (CaCl2 and H2O), organic carbon content, CaCO3, nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, EC (Electrical conductivity), Oxalate extractable Fe and Al. In addition, this dataset includes further modules of LUCAS 2018: a) erosion b) assessment of organic soils and Bulk Density. Further data on the LUCAS 2018 will follow in the future.

Data available at: https://esdac.jrc.ec.europa.eu/content/lucas-2018-topsoil-data
[From ESDAC Newsletter 143 (July 2022)]

High resolution cropland global soil erosion (GloSEM 1.3)

GloSEM stands for Global Soil Erosion Modelling platform. The GloSEM 1.3 dataset, contains present (2019) and future (2070) scenarios on soil erosion at global scale. This covers almost 1.4 billion ha of global croplands at a resolution of 100m. The 2070 scenarios include the projections made with RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RPC8.5. GloSEM has been coupled with the cropland maps from ESA and Copernicus. The results of this study are also aggregated in a summary table per country.

Data are available at: https://esdac.jrc.ec.europa.eu/content/glosem

[From ESDAC Newsletter 144 (August 2022)]

Teaching about the essence of soil biodiversity

Professor Loren B. Byrne of Rodger WIlliams University in Rhode Island, USA discusses the importance of soil biodiversity in ecological education and “Pedogogy for the Pedosphere” in this timely back-to-school piece.

[From GSBI Newsletter – September 2022]

Table of soil biodiversity-related organizations

Check out the GSBI’s online document of soil biodiversity-related organizations, societies, and projects. We hope this assists the global community of soil biodiversity researchers, educators, and policy-makers in understanding what the goals of these organizations are and how they may relate to one another.

[From GSBI Newsletter – September 2022]

“Frontiers for Young Minds” Translations

Did you know that Frontiers for Young Minds soil biodiversity articles are translated into many languages? Brought to you by iDiv – The German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research.

Can you contribute to translating articles? What do you need to know to contribute:

Check the list of articles,
Find an article according to your scientific expertise, and
Fill out the form,
Wait for our response and translate the article.

[From GSBI Newsletter – September 2022]

Call for Soil Food Web Special Issue

The European Journal of Soil Biology announced an open call for submissions to a special issue of the journal on synthesizing multiple facets of soil food web research. Editors for this issue are Anton Potapov (iDiv, Germany), Zoë Lindo (Western University, Ontario), and Robert Buchkowski (Canadian Forest Service, New Brunswick).

Submission Deadline: 5 December 2022

[From GSBI Newsletter – September 2022]

How does young soil support plant life?

In order to grow well, plants need a place to grow, access to nutrients, and in most cases sunlight. A rich soil provides that home and a good supply of nutrients. But young soils have less to offer – yes, soils can have different ages ranging from hundreds to thousands to millions of years old. This is because soil is being made and lost all the time, with various dynamic processes.

[From ASA, CSSA, SSSA Science Policy Report, 31August, 2022]

Conferences, Meetings and Workshops

2022

SOILveR Webinar on Soil Certificates and Soil Passport

14 October 2022

Online, 09:30 – 12:30 CET (Zoom)

Part of the ‘knowledge road’ towards the EU Soil Strategy & Law

SOILveR (Soil and Land research funding Platform) wants to move forward on its ‘knowledge road’ towards the EU Soil Strategy & Law. After having discussed the soil monitoring topic, as well as the sustainable land use (info) SOILveR will organise a third webinar on October 14th 2022 on the use Soil certificates and Soil passports. In this workshop policy and practice will discuss and meet.

Registration: https://www.soilver.eu/registration-form-webinar-soilver-webinar-on-soil-certificates-and-soil-passports-14th-of-october-2022/

International Scientific & Practical Conference “The current state of the soil cover of Ukraine under conditions of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation”

20 October 2022

Online, starts at 10.00 (EEST/UTC +3/Kiev Time)

Official languages: Ukrainian and English

The conference covers the following areas:

impact of military actions on land and soil resources, agricultural production, and the state of the natural environment in Ukraine;
assessment of damage and losses caused by armed aggression to the land fund and soil resources;
directions for liquidation of the consequences of armed aggression and military actions in Ukraine: reclamation, melioration, remediation, and restoration of degraded soils; promising directions of international technical and financial support for the strategy (or programme, plan) of restoration of the soil cover of Ukraine damaged by the war.

Registration until 15 Oct. 2022: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSezwO_DRgV91jTHstlGyA1sAoQ5LYsdSsMCq1RbPfbCoV7utQ/viewform

ENSOr online conference – Emerging policy challenges on new soil contaminants

20-21 October 2022

Online

For this fourth edition of our workshop on Emerging policy challenges on New SOil contaminants, we focus again on PFAS, albeit in a broader context: within what wider social context does the PFAS story play? How to take into account broader health issues? Have we lost sight of the P that stands for People in the PPP-approach? Do we take sufficient account of all stakeholders? Who should we communicate with and what should we communicate about?

Programme: https://www.2mpact.be/nl/ensor-2022/program

Registration: https://www.2mpact.be/nl/ensor-2022/register-now

2023

The 3rd Global Soil Biodiversity Conference

13-15 March 2023

Dublin, Ireland

Extended deadline: October 7, 2022

Abstract guidelines and submission: https://gsb2021.ie/abstracts

Conference website: https://gsb2023.org/

InterPore2023

22 – 25 May 2023

Edinburgh, Scotland

The scientific program ranges from pore-scale modeling, pore-scale imaging, to experimental and numerical methods on larger scales, to sensitivity and uncertainty analysis. Stay abreast of the latest porous media research on trending topics such as energy storage, biotechnics and nature-based agriculture. Presentations will be given on a wide variety of porous media processes in highly diverse applications, including: transport phenomena, soil mechanics, fuel cells, filters, foams, membranes and more. InterPore2023 also offers opportunities to find collaborative industrial and application-oriented institutional partners.

Deadline for submitting abstracts: 12 December 2022

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IUSS News

World Congress of Soil Science (WCSS22)

With more than 1,600 soil science practitioners from various disciplines attending the Congress in person and several hundreds online, the 22nd World Congress of Soil Science organised by the British Soil Science Society in Glasgow between 31 July and 5 August 2022 was a resounding success.

The Congress theme, ‘Soil Science – crossing boundaries, changing society’ focused on the link between soil and society, with sessions covering soil systems, soil processes, soil management and how we interact with and use soils around the world. Specialist workshops and discussion sessions took place across a wide range of soil disciplines. The core programme was supported by tours and a cultural and arts programme for delegates and the wider public to explore our diverse environment and culture. The specific policymakers’ programme, held on Tuesday 2 August 2022, was particularly well attended, with standing room only, and explored how scientific research can inform environmental policy.

In an address recorded specially for the World Congress of Soil Science 2022, screened at the Closing Ceremony, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales expounded on the importance of healthy soil and the role of science in understanding its function and in supporting industry and policy towards effective management practices.

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IUSS News

Royal Support for Soils at WCSS22

We are delighted that two royal speakers will join us during the World Congress of Soil Science. His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester KG GCVO, will join us at our Opening Ceremony and focus on the important roles soils play, not least in farming and food security.

His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales will address the Closing Ceremony via a pre-recorded message and focus on the important role soils play in carbon sequestration and climate change.

Tickets are still available to attend the Congress in person or online to hear from our royal speakers.

World Congress of Soil Science (WCSS22) – Policy Programme

Sustainable natural systems and effective global policies: how to protect a resource that supports life on Earth will take place on Tuesday 2 August from 10:00am to 5:00pm. We are delighted to announce that Rebecca Pow MP, Minister for Nature Recovery and the Domestic Environment, and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, will be providing a welcome to attendees at the event.

WCSS Soil Culture Tour: Limited Availability

Tickets are on sale for the World Congress of Soil Science 2022 tour, Soil Culture, taking place on Friday 5 August. With highlights including a tour of the historic Dumfries House and its grounds, and a soil art themed dialogue session at the Glasgow CCA. Exclusively open to WCSS attendees.

WCSS related exhibition: Call for Compost

Do you have any old textbooks, tools, historical instruments, soil samples, maps or pictures? Contribute to a Research Lounge and Compost Heap as part of We Are Compost / Composting the We held at the Centre for Contemporary Arts Glasgow as part of the Congress fringe events.

WCSS22 – Arts programme and Merchandise

The organizers are delighted to announce some exciting additions to the arts programme!

We are delighted to announce the launch of our online shop, offering unique merchandise ahead of the World Congress of Soil Science 2022. Whether you are looking for items to use during the congress, or take home gifts as a keepsake from this prestigious international event, we have plenty to offer! The items in the shop are available to pre-order for collection during the congress.

IUSS Bulletin 140 published

IUSS Bulletin 140 (130 pages) was uploaded to the IUSS website. IUSS Bulletin 140 contains IUSS news, an abundance of news from national and regional Soil Science Societies, reports from the activities of the IUSS Divisions, followed by an account of World Soil Day 2021 and the latest activities from ‘Stop Soil Degradation and the IUSS educative project to achieve it’. This is followed by conference and meeting reports, articles from the IUSS alerts, new publications and obituaries of outstanding soil scientists.

SUITMA 11 program online available

The program for SUITMA 11 (5-9 September 2022, Berlin, Germany) is now online:

– the oral presentations program can be found here: https://suitma11.org/conference-program/

– the poster session program can be found here: https://suitma11.org/suitma-11-poster-session/

Excursion – registration

Registration for the post-online-conference opens at the 14th of July. Due to organization constraints, limited space at the soil pit and Covid 19 safety measures we can offer places for 40 warmly welcome participants. The registration will close once the 40 places and a short waiting list are filled. We will collect registrations and answer them with an confirmation e-mail.

The excursion fee is 200 Euros for the two days including guided tours from partners, lunchboxes and two joint evening diners. With the confirmation mail we will send an invoice and inform you about the bank transfer details. Please note that your registration is valid with the bank transfer only. You will be informed with a second confirmation mail including the receipt of payment. In case of a cancellation, the excursion fee can only be refunded once we can find a substitute from the waiting list.

You will find the registration here: https://suitma11.org/excursion-registration/

From the International Soil Modeling Consortium (ISMC)

New Working Group: Machine Learning for Soil Modeling

The ISMC will start up a working group focusing on Machine Learning Approaches and their applicability for soil modeling. If you are interested to participate, please send an email to: ismc.coord@gmail.com.

[From GSBI Newsletter – July 2022]

IUSS Stimulus fund – Call for submissions

Deadline for submissions: 15 September 2022

IUSS at IAEA-Symposium

The IUSS was represented at the International Symposium on Managing Land and Water for Climate-Smart Agriculture, 25–29 July 2022, Vienna, Austria by the former IUSS President Rainer Horn with a keynote speech ‘Soil science research approaches and future needs’ and with a stand, where the IUSS books and the Centennial in Italy in 2024 were promoted by the IUSS Secretariat.

News from national soil science societies

British Society of Soil Science

Soil and the UN Sustainable Development Goals

95% of the food we eat comes from soil and it needs to feed 7 billion people. Our new videos, released in advance of the World Congress of Soil Science, highlight the importance of soil in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Launched during June, we are delighted to share the first two videos with you: Life on Land and Zero Hunger. Two more videos were launched in the run-up to the World Congress of Soil Science 2022 (WCSS22) and all videos are available on our YouTube channel. Please share them with your networks, on social media using the hashtags #WCSS2022 and #unsdgs, and in outreach presentations that you may be giving.

Watch the video: Life on Land: Soil and the UN Sustainable Development Goals – YouTube

General News

News from the International Science Council (ISC)

ISC Annual Report 2021 published

2021 was a pivotal year for the Council, with the launch of major new activities, a well-attended General Assembly, and the election of the Council’s second Governing Board. Science advice to policy was under the spotlight in 2021, with important negotiations on climate and biodiversity policy, as well as the need to respond to the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic and to ‘build back better’. This report summarizes all of the ISC’s major activities through 2021, as well as those of its affiliated bodies, and includes the Council’s financial reporting for the year. We hope you will enjoy exploring the report online and would welcome any feedback.

International Year of Basic Science for Sustainable Development was launched

The International Year of Basic Science for Sustainable Development was launched on 8 July at UNESCO in Paris. It focuses on the links between basic sciences and the Sustainable Development Goals. This is a unique opportunity to convince all stakeholders that through a basic understanding of nature, actions taken will be more effective, for the common good.

Find out more about the year and how to get involved.

[Source: ISC Newsletter July 28, 2022]

EGU SSS Call for Sessions

The EGU General Assembly 2023 will be held on site at the Austria Center Vienna, with online components provided to enable virtual attendance, from 23 to 28 April 2023.

The call-for-sessions is open. Deadline for session proposals is September 19^th, 2022.

Take an active part in organizing the scientific programme of the SSS division, by suggesting sessions, with conveners and a description, at https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU23/provisionalprogramme.

GSBI Blog “Beneath Our Feet” – Challenges of and opportunities for protecting European soil biodiversity

The author explores the efficacy of current and past soil-related policies in the protection of European soils in the May issue of Conservation Biology.

[From GSBI Newsletter – July 2022]

Confused by the abbreviations & acronyms of the many soil biodiversity projects and organizations?

The recent increase in research initiatives and projects related to the science of soil biodiversity led to the creation of many new acronyms. We at the GSBI Secretariat developed a living online document of soil biodiversity-related organizations, societies, and projects with the goal of assisting the global community of soil biodiversity researchers, educators, and policy-makers in understanding what the goals of these organizations are and how they may relate to one another.

[From GSBI Newsletter – June 2022]

Call for Soil Biodiversity Special Issue

The European Journal of Soil Biodiversity announced an open call for submissions to a special issue of the journal on synthesizing multiple facets of soil food web research. Editors for this issue are Anton Potapov (University of Göttingen), Zoë Lindo (Western University, Ontario), and Robert Buchkowski (Canadian Forest Service, New Brunswick).

Submissions open: 01 July 2022

Submission Deadline: 05 December 2022

Guidelines and more info: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/european-journal-of-soil-biology/about/forthcoming-special-issues

[From GSBI Newsletter – July 2022]

The secret world beneath our feet is mind-blowing – and the key to our planet’s future

Beneath our feet is an ecosystem so astonishing that it tests the limits of our imagination. It’s as diverse as a rainforest or a coral reef. We depend on it for 99% of our food, yet we scarcely know it. Soil. Under one square metre of undisturbed ground in the Earth’s mid-latitudes (which include the UK) there might live several hundred thousand small animals. Roughly 90% of the species to which they belong have yet to be named. One gram of this soil – less than a teaspoonful – contains around a kilometre of fungal filaments.

Conferences, Meetings and Workshops

2022

ESAFS2022: 15th international conference of the East and Southeast Asia Federation of Soil science societies (ESAFS) – “Our Soils Our Future”

22-26 August 2022, Royale Chulan Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

ESAFS conference is a series of scientific meeting organized every two years to share invaluable experience and knowledge among soil scientists particularly within East and Southeast Asia countries. It is also a platform to promote R&D and disseminate the acquired knowledge and technology related to soil sciences. This series of ESAFS’s conference are organized to fulfill part of the above aims, rotates within member countries thus allowing equal participations of local soil scientists and fair site information exchange. ESAFS 2022 is the second time for Malaysia as an organizer.

Registration: https://bit.ly/ESAFS2022REGISTRATION

Abstract Submission https://www.msss.com.my/esafs2022/submit.php

International conference contaminated sites 2022

12-14 October 2022

Trnava, Slovak Republic

Contaminated sites have become one of the most serious environmental issues facing the European Union and involving enormous financial and social implications. The conference aims to provide a wide space for discussion, knowledge exchange among experts from government and non-government organizations, public and private sector, praxis, science and academic sector.

Abstract registration: https://contaminated-sites2020.sazp.sk/online-registration/

Life of Mine – Maintaining Sustainability Through Geoscience Virtual Symposium

November 14-17, 2022

Deadline for submittal of abstracts is August 22, 2022

2023

Workshop Soil Mapping for a Sustainable Future

7-9 February 2023

Orléans, France

The 2nd joint Workshop of the IUSS Working Groups Digital Soil Mapping & Global Soil Map entitled ‘Soil Mapping for a Sustainable Future’ is now open for registration.

Early bird registration until 30 October 2022.

Call for abstracts open until 20 September 2022.

Website: http://www.lestudium-ias.com/event/soil-mapping-sustainable-future

Global Conference on Sandy Soils

28 May – 1 June 2023

Madison, Wisconsin, USA

Sandy soils cover approximately 900 million ha worldwide, particularly in arid or semi-arid regions. There are extensive areas of sandy soils under cultivation, but the soil fertility is often low. Sandy soils – as a group of soils – have received limited research attention. With increasing global pressure on land resources, marginal soils such as sandy soils are taken into production or cultivated more intensely. There is a need to quantify and understand the properties of sandy soils. This conference will bring together experts on sandy soils from across the world.

Deadline for Abstract submission is March 15, 2023

Deadline for registration is April 15, 2023

Conference website: https://sandysoils.org/

For the complete list of upcoming events, please see the event calendar on the IUSS website: https://www.iuss.org/meetings-events/

New publications

Fourth edition of the WRB published

World Reference Base for Soil Resources. International soil classification system for naming soils and creating legends for soil maps. 4^th edition published in 2022 by the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS), Vienna, Austria. ISBN 979-8-9862451-1-9, 234 pages.

You can download it from the WRB homepage: https://www3.ls.tum.de/fileadmin/w00bds/boku/downloads/wrb/WRB_fourth_edition_2022.pdf

Salty soil adventure – A collection of ten children’s stories from around the world

Published by FAO and International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) in 2022. 174 pages, 978-92-5-136403-1.

In the framework of World Soil Day (WSD) 2021, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) and the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) launched a scientific children’s booklet contest on salt-affected soils with the motto “Halt soil salinization, boost soil productivity”. This is the collection of some of the best entries with a regionally balanced approach, in order to effectively reach children from all around the world, and raise awareness for the urgency of fighting salinization and sodification processes.

Job offers

If you are interested in working in soil sciences and related fields of expertise, please see current job offers at: https://www.iuss.org/jobs/

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IUSS News

IUSS Book ‘Sustainable soil management as a key to preserve soil biodiversity and stop its degradation’ published

Within the framework of the International Decade of Soils (IDS) 2015-2024 and continuing with the objective of publishing and distributing material relevant to the interests of the IUSS and its members an IUSS Open Access Book Series was launched under a Creative Commons license. This is the first book of the Open Access IUSS Book Series celebrating the 98th anniversary of IUSS, as it was published on May 19, 2022.

Soil Biodiversity was proposed as a current topic of great scientific, social, economic, and political importance for the present IUSS book. The book was written from an interdisciplinary perspective covering the current state of the art in this area. Perspectives of various points of view and interactions are reflected according to the different areas of knowledge of soil sciences offered by the authors. That is why the book contains both experimental data and conceptual information, didactic experiences, and reviews organized in four different sections.

Update of the Scientific programme of the WCSS 2022

Please check the full programme regularly as the programme is constantly updated. The dates and times of all the sessions can be found here.

Not registered? Don’t miss out, register today!

Víctor Hugo Alvarez Venegas (1938-2022)

The Brazilian Soil Science Society (SBCS) communicates, with great regret, the death of Víctor Hugo Alvarez Venegas, a professor of Soils Department at the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV), which took place on 19 June 2022. Professor Víctor Hugo was 83 years old, and an honorary member of SBCS.

Born in Ecuador he dedicated most of his career to the UFV and Brazilian soil science. He became General Secretary of SBCS in 1997 and was vice president from 2001 to 2009. During his term the SBCS had its structure entirely revised to adjust to IUSS Divisions and Commissions. His strength was behind the proposals of SBCS to host the World Congress of Soil Science in Brazil, which culminated in 2018 with the 18th WCSS Rio.

His death is a great loss not only for SBCS, but for SLCS and IUSS.

News from national soil science societies

British Society of Soil Science

Categorising Soil: Training Course

With classroom-based lectures and in-the-field training at local soil pits, this two-day Soil Training course is one not to miss! Taking place at the University of Stirling on 28 and 29 July, the course will cover Scottish soil types including brown earths, peat bogs, and podzols and the tools used in understanding and categorising soils in practice. The price for non-members is £425, which includes complimentary Associate membership of the Society until the end of 2022.

Book your place: https://britishsocietyofsoilscience.wildapricot.org/event-4732970

Share Your Soil Voice

Soil Voices, part of Our Living Soil, builds connections between writers, soil practitioners, food producers and consumers. Contact Jude Allen if you would like to record your soil story or memory during WCSS22, which will then be added to the online world map of soil stories.

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financially supported

WET-2 Sensor – Measures moisture and nutrient content in the root zone

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The Delta‐T Devices WET-2 Sensor has crucial applications in soil science research and precision horticulture, and is usable in both soils and growing substrates.

It is exceptional in its ability to accurately measure pore water conductivity (ECp) – the EC of the water that is available to the plant.

More information on the WET-2 Sensor

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IUSS News

WCSS 2022 Scientific Programme available

We are pleased to inform that the full Scientific Programme of the WCSS 2022 is available.

News from IUSS Commission 1.1 – YMPA’22

We are extending the deadline for applications for the Young Micromorphologist Publication Award – 2022 Competition, until 24:00 CET on June 15th, 2022. Application packages should be sent directly to the Chair of Commission 1.1. (Prof. Fabio Terribile, fabio.terribile@unina.it ). Detailed procedures can be found in the Winter’22 email (circulated by email on 16 January 2022).

IUSS Division 2 would like to recommend the following scientific paper

Hiroaki Shimada, RotaWagai, Yudzuru Inoue, Kenji Tamura, Maki Asano. Millennium timescale carbon stability in an Andisol: How persistent are organo-metal complexes? Geoderma 2022, 417 (1), 115820. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2022.115820

The paper has been selected as Editor’s choice for May in Geoderma.

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is the largest reservoir of terrestrial carbon, providing significant ecosystem services. Due to the SOC degradation by improper human activities, more knowledge on SOC stability is important. This paper shows factors controlling millennium timescale stability of SOC under aerobic soil environment by comparing two buried Andisol horizons (2A and 4A) having different burial period (500 and 4,600 years based on tephra chronology) in Japan. The results show that linear relationship between SOC and pyrophosphate-extractable Al + Fe concentrations across all layers. But aromatic C was not the dominant C group, indicating that the molecular recalcitrance of aromatic compounds cannot fully account for long-term SOC stability. Furthermore, the paper shows that organo-metal complexes changed over the 4,100 years to the older horizon, that is, O-alkyl C declined more compared to aromatic C; Metals correlated more with alkyl C; Distribution of SOC and the metals was shifted from 0.2–2 μm to <0.2 μm fraction, suggesting partial breakdown of the microaggregates where organo-metal complexes likely acted as glue. The paper suggested that these changes may lead to the disappearance of buried A horizons in 10,000-year time scale. These information on the log-term SOC stability would help to understand human impacts on C cycle and climate change.

News from national soil science societies

Soil Science Society of America

Come join the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil Science Society of America at its Annual Meeting in Baltimore, MD, Nov. 6-9, 2022, to help turn the strategies into actions and the actions into impacts.

All scientific abstracts are accepted! Gain presentation experience and professional recognition among premier agronomic, crop, soil, and related science professionals. Your efforts will expand your CV/vita, disseminate information for all to succeed, and foster lasting collaborations with your peers.

In person and virtual abstract submission available. Submit an abstract by June 21 to save; final day to submit is July 12. Don’t have the detail you need to submit an abstract? No problem! Abstracts at this point are simply “holding slots” that reserve your spot in the desired session. Submit now and update through Nov. 9. Need tips on how to write an abstract? Check out www.acsmeetings.org/submit for tips, regulations, and FAQ.

We invite you to join us in Baltimore and/or virtually: https://www.acsmeetings.org/

Brazilian Soil Science Society

Brazil forms a national network of universities to offer postgraduate course in soils

The Brazilian government agency for promoting postgraduate education, CAPES, approved the formation of a consortium of universities to offer a postgraduate course in Geoprocessing, Soil Survey and Interpretation, to be offered remotely, starting on January 2023. The project of the course integrates the future proposal of the Pronasolos University and its general objective is to train public agents and professionals in soil characterization, survey and mapping and interpretation of this resource for agricultural and environmental purposes.

The professionals will work in various activities and institutions, especially in the National Program for the Survey and Interpretation of Soils in Brazil (PronaSolos), which has the objective of mapping Brazilian soils, at scales ranging from 1:25,000 to 1:100,000. The lack of detailed information on Brazilian soils is a serious problem for national development, since, currently, less than 5% of the national territory has soil maps at detailed scales of 1:100,000 or greater.

The project of the postgraduate course was planned to be the origin of a future Pronasolos University. It is a partnership of Brazilian Universities, including, initially, the UFRRJ, UFV, UFMG, UFRA and UFG, with the support of the Brazilian Soil Science Society (SBCS) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAPA).

By Léa Medeiros, Jornalista

British Society of Soil Science

The British Society will be providing a £5,000 Interdisciplinary Grant which will be awarded to a group of Early Career professionals during the World Congress of Soil Science 2022 in Glasgow. To apply for the grant, at least one member will need to attend the workshop we are hosting on 20 July.

We will be offering a grant of £5,000 to a team of early career professionals attending WCSS22. A workshop will be held on Wednesday 20 July from 10.30am to 1.00pm (British Summer Time) to provide an overview of the grant, guidance on how to write a successful funding bid and an opportunity to network with your peers to create your multi-disciplinary team. This workshop is a prerequisite to applying for the grant and attendees must book their place in advance.

General News

News from the International Science Council (ISC)

Talk Back Better Webinar Series Launching in May

As part of the ISC’s Public Value of Science programme and in partnership with the Falling Walls International Year of Science Engagement initiative we are convening a series of webinars exploring a discursive analysis on science communication practice, along with practical tips for researchers and research managers. The series will run every week for 5 weeks starting Thursday 26 May. ISC Members are invited to register at the following link: https://council.science/current/news/talk-back-better-webinar-series-starting-may/

Call for papers on open science policies as an accelerator for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

UNESCO, in collaboration with the Journal of Science Policy & Governance (JSPG) and the Major Group for Children and Youth (MGCY) launch a special issue on Open Science Policies as an Accelerator for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Deadline for submission: 10 July 2022

UNESCO launches a global call for best practices in open science

Further to the adoption of the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science in November 2021, UNESCO is launching a Global Call for Best Practices in Open Science. The resulting compendium of best practices will be a useful tool to better understand the current landscape of open science, share lessons learned, identify and connect open science actors around the world, and further develop innovative solutions for open science in a collaborative, inclusive and transparent manner. Inputs can be provided in English, French or Spanish.

Deadline: 15 July 2022

[From ISC Update on May 9, 2022]

EGU SSS – OECS award and medals – Call for nominations

The call-for-nominations for the SSS Outstanding Early Career Scientist (OECS) award and the Philippe Duchaufour / Alina Kabata-Pendias medals is currently open.

Deadline for submissions is 15 June 2022.

Call for papers for special issue in Geoderma Regional on transitioning to healthy soils with agroforestry systems

A healthy soil is a living ecosystem that sustains biological productivity while maintaining the quality of the abiotic environment and protecting soil microbial, plant and animal life. Trees play a fundamental role in sustaining soil health, and they also contribute to the regeneration of degraded land. Agroforestry systems, where trees are deliberately combined with agriculture, are a sustainable land management practice that improves soil health by enhancing soil organic carbon storage, nutrient availability, and promoting soil microbial community diversity. Agroforestry systems also facilitate the transition to regenerative and sustainable land-use practices. However, to what extent can agroforestry systems fulfill this role? What conditions are needed for agroforestry systems to maximize soil health and productivity? These questions remain unresolved and require further research. This special issue will report on the most recent studies conducted in tropical, temperate, and Mediterranean climates that demonstrate how agroforestry systems are responsible for soil improvements as we transition to healthy soils.

Anticipated submission deadline: December 31, 2022

Does large-scale turnover in soil biodiversity mirror what we see aboveground?

Plants are foundational primary producers and form the great majority of biomass in terrestrial ecosystems. So, it is not unreasonable that we use vegetation characteristics, along with macro-climatic correlates and a dose of expert opinion, to classify large-scale variation in biodiversity (i.e. biomes). In his paper, John Davison, Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Estonia, discusses a study which found that variation in most organism groups – including bacteria, archaea and different fungal guilds – was best explained by the combination of air temperature and soil pH; with eukaryotic groups responding more to temperature and prokaryotic groups more to pH.

[From GSBI Newsletter – May 2022]

Giant World-Wide Assessment of Macroinvertebrate Communities published

Patrick Lavelle and colleagues recently published their world-wide assessment of soil macroarthropods in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography.

Macroinvertebrates comprise a highly diverse set of taxa with great potential as indicators of soil quality. Communities were sampled at 3,694 sites distributed world-wide. The authors aimed to analyse the patterns of abundance, composition and network characteristics and their relationships to latitude, mean annual temperature and rainfall, land cover, soil texture and agricultural practices.

Main conclusions: Soil macroinvertebrate communities respond to climatic, soil and land-cover conditions. All taxa, except termites, are found everywhere, and communities from the five clusters cover a wide range of geographical and environmental conditions. Agricultural practices significantly decrease abundance, although the presence of tree components alleviates this effect.

[From GSBI Newsletter – May 2022]

Global rainfall erosivity projections for 2050 and 2070

We present a comprehensive set of future erosivity projections at a 30 arc-second (~1 km2) spatial scale using 19 downscaled General Circulation Models (GCMs) simulating three Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) for the periods 2041–2060 and 2061–2080. The future rainfall erosivity projections were obtained based on a Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) approach relating rainfall depth to rainfall erosivity through a series of (bio)climatic covariates. In the new study, we estimate a potential average increase in global rainfall erosivity between 26.2 and 28.8% for 2050 and 27–34.3% for 2070 compared to 2010 baseline. The results of 102 simulations and 6 aggregated datasets are available.

[From ESDAC Newsletter 141 (May 2022)]

Award for “Healthy Soils for Healthy Vines. Soil Management for Productive Vineyards.”

The International Jury of the OIV, the International Organisation of Vine and Wine, has awarded the book “Healthy Soils for Healthy Vines. Soil Management for Productive Vineyards” the PRIX de l’OIV 2021, OIV AWARD 2021, in the category Vitiviniculture Durable – Sustainable Vitiviniculture. The IUSS congratulates the authors Robert White and Mark Krstic on winning this award.

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The SM150T is a dual purpose probe – it can be used portably (with readout unit) for instant moisture readings, or left installed in the soil for continuous logging – to provide long-term moisture and temperature data.

The SM150T is provided with general calibrations for mineral and organic soils. A two-point soil specific calibration can be performed for greater accuracy if required.

More information on the SM150T

If you are interested to promote your product or book, event, job call in our Alert, please send an email to .

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L'articolo IUSS Alert 203 (May 2022) proviene da iuss.org.

IUSS Alert 202 (April 2022)

Secretariat — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 10:22:31 +0000

Download the IUSS Soilutions Calender (59MB)

IUSS News

WCSS 2022 Preliminary Scientific Programme available

The WCSS22 organisers are working hard to build an exciting congress programme. The first view is now available online and details the Plenary, Divisional and Interdivisional sessions, initial timings and which sessions will be available online. Over the coming weeks, this programme will be developed to provide information on each session, the speakers and detail the accepted oral presentations. Watch this space for more information!

WCSS 2022 Policy Programme 2 August 2022

Join policymakers from the UK and internationally on Tuesday 2 August to discuss Sustainable natural systems and effective global policies: how to protect a resource that supports life on earth. The full-day event will include Jack Hannam, Carmen Sanchez-Garcia and Erik Button from the Welsh Government Soil Policy Team, Cranfield University, Swansea University & Bangor University. The event is free of charge for registered delegates.

[News on the WCSS 2022 are from the British Society of Soil Science Newsletter, 7 April 2022]

IUSS Division 2 WCSS Travel Award

This programme will provide fellowships to graduate students or early-career researchers (within 5 years of PhD) presenting papers (oral or poster) on the divisional sessions related to the IUSS Division 2 at the 22nd World Congress of Soil Science (WCSS), July 31-August 5, 2022 in Glasgow, UK. Travel awards will be provided up to $500 per person for up to 35 individuals. The money will be transferred to the winner’s bank account after the presentation will be completed.

Final Submission by May 30, 2022 – noon UTC

Call for contributions to IUSS Bulletin 140

The IUSS Secretariat (iuss@umweltbundesamt.at) kindly invites all IUSS members to submit their contributions for our next IUSS Bulletin 140 (to be published in June 2022) no later than 15 May 2022. In particular, the Secretariat would welcome conference/meeting reports and reports on activities dedicated to the International Decade of Soils (2015-2024), and any other information you would like to share with the international soil science community. National soil science societies are encouraged to present their recent activities. Please make sure to send high-resolution photos only together with captions and the copyright information (owner of the photos).

Call for Nominations for the Richard Webster Medal 2022

The Richard Webster Medal is an award by the Pedometrics Commission of the International Union of Soil Sciences. The award is for the best body of work that has advanced the discipline of pedometrics: the application of mathematical and statistical methods to problems in the understanding of soils in space and time, and the provision of information for their better management.

The Richard Webster Medal will be awarded at the 2022 World Congress of Soil Science. The award is judged by the Pedometrics Commission Awards Committee on the basis of nominations received.

Nominations should be sent to the Committee Chair, Professor Murray Lark at murray.lark@nottingham.ac.uk. Anyone considering sending a nomination should examine the guidelines for the award carefully at http://pedometrics.org/the-richard-webster-medal/ and make sure that their proposed candidate is eligible, and is willing to be nominated. Note that the requirements for the written evidence will be strictly adhered to, and any nomination which consists only of a curriculum vitae for the candidate, with no covering statement as requested, will be discarded.

Nominations must be received by the Committee Chair no later than midday British Summer Time on 31st May 2022.

Patrick H. Walker (1929-2022)

It is with sadness that we advise the passing of Dr, pioneering Australian soil scientist. Dr. Patrick H. Walker has passed away after a short illness on the Central Coast of NSW, aged 93. Pat will be remembered as a perceptive, dedicated and generous researcher, administrator and mentor who made an enduring contribution to our understanding of Australian soils. After beginning his career at the NSW Department of Agriculture in 1951, he spent many years as a senior researcher and later an Assistant Chief at the CSIRO Division of Soils in Canberra. He was a visiting Professor at the Faculty of Applied Science, University of Canberra from 1991-1993, is a past Prescott Medallist and State President of the Australian Society of Soil Science as well as a recipient of many awards and professional affiliations. Soil Science Australia would like to acknowledge Pat’s industrious contribution to soil science and SSA and offers its sincere sympathy to Pat’s family and friends.

From an obituary written by Associate Professor Vanessa Wong CPSS, Federal President

News from national soil science societies

News from the British Society of Soil Science

Our 2021 Annual Report is now available, setting out the significant achievements we have made over the past year. This includes organising 26.5 training hours for members, sending 27 email updates, responding to five consultations and representing members as a Non-Governmental Organisation at COP 26. The Annual Report demonstrates the impact which our activities are having and the progress we are making against our strategic goals.

Our Science Note: Soil Carbon is featured in the Spring edition of Science in Parliament. The article, Is Sequestering Carbon in Agricultural Soils A Viable Option for Climate Change Mitigation?, outlines some key messages and recommendations to policy makers.

News from the Soil Science Society of China

The most recent newsletter of the Soil Science Society of China – Vol.3 is available online. Starting out with policy highlights it features news on the Dan Yaloon and IUSS Von Liebig awardees, information on new research and recent publications.

General News

Innsbruck Nature Film Festival: Special awards for soils and agricultural biodiversity

Soils are not only the foundation of our lives and the provider of ecosystem services, they are the themes and actors of amazing films. Since 2015 the Innsbruck Nature Film Festival (INFF) honors the cinematic representation of this non-renewable resource with a special prize on the topic of soils. Also in 2022, a prize worth 2.000 € will be awarded. Register now and submit your films until May 10^th.

Further, a special prize on films concerning agricultural biodiversity is awarded.

For more information see: https://naturefestival.eu/en/film-2/#prizes

Submit your film via Filmfreeway: https://filmfreeway.com/INFF. The INFF would be grateful to receive recommendations for suitable films (prod. year 2020-2022), please mail nina.feistmantl@inff.eu

Photocontest on #Soils4Nutrition

Are you a professional, occasional or aspiring photographer? Join the contest and send us your photos that will compete for public voting during the Global Symposium on #Soils4Nutrition.

Deadline: 10 July 2022

[From Global Soil Partnership Special announcement No. 39, April 2022]

Call for Papers: Special Issue on “Soil biodiversity at the basis of ecological intensification for sustainable agriculture”

Agriculture currently faces several challenges, including the need to (i) increase crop production to respond to the rising demand for agricultural products, (ii) manage sustainably agroecosystems and natural resources, (iii) increase crop productivity to limit further land conversion from forest and natural ecosystems into cropland, (iv) reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate climate change, and v) make agricultural systems more resilient to climate change. To meet these challenges, soil ecological intensification is a promising solution based on the management of ecosystem services provided by organisms that make a direct or indirect contribution to agricultural production and other ecosystem services, and reduce its environmental footprint.

In this special issue, the editors aim to gather studies that contribute to the mechanistic understanding of how soil biodiversity influences soil functions that are necessary for sustainable and intensified crop productivity. In particular, the editors In particular, welcome studies on:

soil microorganisms (symbiotic or not, notably within the rhizosphere),
microfauna (protists, nematodes),
mesofauna (Collembolan, mites), and
macrofauna (earthworms, etc.)

Submissions close on 31 July 2022.

[From GSBI Newsletter – April 2022]

ESDAC datasets

The European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC) offers access to many, mostly EU-wide datasets. These include the European Soil Database, data on soil threats (soil erosion, soil organic carbon, landslides, soil biodiversity, diffuse contamination, etc.), LUCAS point data and derived products, soil functions. All datasets are free to download. ESDAC is an integral part of the European Soil Observatory.

[From ESDAC Newsletter 140 (April 2022)]

Soil Biodiversity Conservation literature and legally binding instruments

This meta database includes a review of 54 articles addressing soil biodiversity conservation at the EU or Member States level. In addition, we present Member States policy documents which address Soil Biodiversity Conservation. These can be either strategies for soil protection at the Member State level or legally binding instruments (binding/hard law) implicitly and explicitly addressing threats to soil biodiversity. More information can be found in the published study.

Access the meta database: https://esdac.jrc.ec.europa.eu/content/soil-biodiversity-conservation-literature-and-legally-binding-instruments

[From ESDAC Newsletter 140 (April 2022)]

World Ranking of Agricultural scientists

This 1st edition of top scientists ranking for Plant Science and Agronomy was published by Research.com, one of the major websites for Plant Science and Agronomy research offering credible data on scientific contributions since 2014. Some soil scientists are included in the ranking, with Rattan Lal, former IUSS president, occupying the 2^nd rank in plant science and agronomy.

Are legumes more than the sum of their nodules?

Marie Schaedel, University of Minnesota, USA, discusses her new paper in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. The authors reviewed articles published within the past fifteen years that investigated legume-microbe interactions, with a specific focus on associations with non-rhizobia bacteria. The authors found strong evidence suggesting that legume root zones enhance microbial abundance and diversity compared to non-legume plants such as grasses.

[From GSBI Newsletter – April 2022]

Conferences, Meetings and Workshops

2022

Zoom into Soil: Soils, A Record of Our Past

4 May 2022, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM GMT

The British Society of Soil Science (BSSS) is delighted to announce the latest webinar in the lunchtime series of Zoom into Soil. Zoom into Soil: Soils, A Record of Our Past will take place on Wednesday 4 May from 12.00 to 1.00pm and is free of charge for all delegates. We are delighted to welcome Dr Ria Mitchell from the University of Sheffield to present ‘Palaeosols (fossil soils) as records of environmental, climatic and evolutionary change through geologic time’. Fossilised soils, or palaeosols, are preserved in the geologic rock record for the past ~3 billion years. Therefore, they provide insight into ancient environmental, climatic, and evolutionary changes over this time and have become a well-documented proxy in the literature. They provide a unique perspective of these Earth-wide processes because they form at the interface between the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and the biosphere, often preserving specific geochemical signatures of conditions at their time of formation.

Registration: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/2756396908048070926

Soils, Our Planet and the Climate Crisis

17 May 2022

Webinar, 10.30 am to 12.30 pm BST (UTC +1)

Smart and Circular Agriculture towards Sustainability Congress (SCAS 2022)

21-22 July 2022

Porto, Portugal

Hybrid conference

Abstract submission is open until May 31, 2022

This conference aims to address topics related to: i) Research, Innovation & Training in Agriculture 4.0, ii) Circular Agriculture and Food Systems, iii) Vertical Farming and urban agriculture: where do we stand?, and iv) Pests and disease control for more sustainable agriculture: the challenging 2030 targets.

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IUSS Alert 201 (March 2022)

Secretariat — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 10:18:50 +0000

Download the IUSS Soilutions Calender (59MB)

IUSS News

WCSS 2022 News

Attend the World Congress

It is now only four months until the World Congress of Soil Science takes place at the SEC in Glasgow. Taking place from 31 July – 5 August, the Congress themed Crossing Boundaries, Changing Society will see upwards of 2,500 international soil scientists, practitioners, and policy makers attend. Over 400 oral presentations split by theme, and 1,000 posters and accompanying media are expected with a dedicated policy programme inviting views and debate on the hot topics of real-world applications in soil science. Accompanying the scientific and policy programmes will be a diverse selection of industry exhibitors, soil tours, fringe events, training, a gala dinner and an arts and culture programme, Our Living Soil.

Soil Judging Training Days

Opportunities to access high-quality education and training in soil science are rare, which is why BSSS has opened the training days of the WCSS22 Soil Judging Competition to individual booking! Running on Thursday 28 and Friday 29 July at the University of Stirling, the training covers a range of subjects in the morning, before practical demonstrations and field trips in the afternoon. For more information, and to book, visit our website.

Book now: https://britishsocietyofsoilscience.wildapricot.org/event-4732970

Join the WCSS 2022 As A Sponsor

The World Congress is an ideal opportunity to promote your brand to 2,500 expected international participants. We have a range of opportunities available including hosting satellite symposia, sponsoring activities such as the online event portal and gala dinner, or hosting a stand at the event. Contact wcss2022@speak.co.uk for further information.

Become a sponsor: https://22wcss.org/about-us/exhibition/

[News on WCSS22 are from The British Society of Soil Science Newsletter, 10 March 2022]

Recipients of the IUSS Awards 2022

The IUSS is proud to announce the awardees of the prestigious IUSS Awards in 2022 and congratulates them on their great scientific achievements:

Professor Emeritus Nicola Senesi is the recipient of the 2022 IUSS Dokuchaev Award for his outstanding contributions and achievements in basic soil science research. Prof. Senesi’s distinguished career spanned more than half a century (1967-2021) and focused on the instrumental role of soil systems for both agricultural production and environmental protection. He has successfully applied several novel and advanced chemical, physico-chemical and biochemical methods and spectroscopic techniques to investigate the molecular structures and chemical functionalities soil organic matter, especially humic fractions isolated from a wide variety of soils, organic amendments and waters. He used the same approaches to study from a novel perspective the interactions of pesticides with and the complexation of micronutrient/micropollutant trace metals to humic substances.

The intense and wide research activity and the scientific stature of Prof. Senesi is reflected in his impressive scientific publication record and citations including ranking in the top 1% of scientists in the Stanford University World Ranking of Scientists. Prof. Senesi was also a visionary educator.

Prof. Senesi served in multiple roles in national and international scientific organizations and in the organization of several international and national conferences and symposia. He was an active member in ISSS/IUSS, serving as Chair of Commission II-Soil Chemistry of ISSS and then as Chair of Division II-Soil Properties and Processes of IUSS.

Professor Yong-Guan Zhu is the recipient of the 2022 IUSS Von Liebig Award for his achievements in applied soil science research. Dr. Zhu has made outstanding contributions in the field of soil-plant-microbe interactions, particularly in relation to the biogeochemistry of metals (arsenic), emerging chemicals (antibiotics), and nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus).

Dr. Zhu’s research has led to detailed understanding of the effects of arsenic on the global food supply and was the first to characterize the risk of food arsenic to the health of the Chinese population. In addition to arsenic, he has made substantial contributions to the mitigation of risks associated with soil polluted with radionuclides, pioneered the characterization of the environmental antimicrobial resistome (AMR) and developed the field of coupled biogeochemical processes. One of his most enduring contributions is his leadership in promoting multidisciplinary study in applied soil science in China.

Dr. Zhu has also provided leadership to his profession by serving as Vice President of the Chinese Society of Soil Science, Chinese Ecological Society, and the International Society of Trace Element Biogeochemistry; Vice Division Chair of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) and Vice President of the International Union of Radioecology.

Dr. Umakant Mishra of the Sandia National Laboratories is the recipient of the 2022 IUSS Jeju Award for his outstanding accomplishments as an early-career soil scientist. Dr. Mishra’s research on terrestrial carbon cycle science has received both national and international recognition. His research has compared the ability of classical spatial statistical analysis with machine learning. He showed that the soil organic carbon prediction accuracy was improved by combining the results from the machine learning analysis approaches. Dr. Mishra has also conducted research on land use change, life cycle analysis, and greenhouse gas emissions in many environments.

In his professional career, Dr. Mishra provided leadership to different committees of various scientific societies/agencies in the U.S. and globally. Scientific contributions of Dr. Mishra received an outstanding associate editor award from the Agronomy Journal in 2014 and the distinguished research award from the Regional and Global Modeling program of U.S. Department of Energy in 2020.

Dr. Mishra’s interdisciplinary research experience, collaborative initiatives with national and international investigators, track record of generating funding, contributions to the scientific literature, and service to scientific societies make him a most deserving recipient of the IUSS Jeju Award.

Results of Election of IUSS officers 2022-2026

Every four years elections of the officers for Divisions and Commissions take place. All officers except the appointed Vice-Chairs of the Divisions can be re-elected for one further term. The election of IUSS officers for 2022-2026 started in September 2021. In total 104 candidates from 26 different countries were nominated, valid votes from 39 national soil science societies (IUSS Full members) were received until January 28, 2022.

Let us congratulate all elected IUSS officers (see list for download below). We are looking forward to a fruitful collaboration.

The term of the elected officers will start at the end of the WCSS 2022, on Aug. 5, 2022.

Download the election results: https://www.iuss.org/media/iuss_officers_election_2021_results.pdf

James Patrick Quirk (1924 – 2022)

Jim Quirk was a Reader in Soil Science at the Waite Agricultural Research Institute from 1956-1962. He then became the Foundation Professor of Soil Science and Head of the Department of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition at the University of Western Australia from 1963 to 1974. In 1974 he returned to the WAITE Agricultural Research Institute, at the University of Adelaide as Director until his retirement in 1991. Jim Quirk was a renowned soil scientist who helped shape soil science in Australia with a very large number of very significant scientific papers and many significant awards, including the Prescott, AIAS, Farrer Memorial and Mueller Medals, as well as receiving the Order of Australia for his contributions. Since 1998 he was an Honorary Member of IUSS.

Soil Science Australia acknowledges Jim’s tireless contribution to soil science and offers its sincere sympathy to Jim’s family and friends. Based on text from Associate Professor Vanessa Wong CPSS, Federal President of Soil Science Australia

Soil videos now available on YouTube

In 2020, the IUSS Working Group WRB made videos on soil description and classification in German, English and Spanish. In the German video, the German system is used. In the English and the Spanish video, we use the FAO Guidelines (2006) for soil description and the WRB (2015) for soil classification. The videos were originally a result of the pandemics, but may be of general interest. They are available on the homepage of the TUM School of Life Sciences.

As of 16 March 2022, they are also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-dL7jrqhzwoFfKNLTwGXxQ/videos

News from national soil science societies

Malaysian Society of Soil Science

The Malaysian Society of Soil Science (MSSS) in collaboration with the Institute of Biological Sciences (ISB), Universiti Malaya (UM) will organize the 15^th International Conference of the East and Southeast Asia Federation of Soil Science Societies (ESAFS 2022) to be held in, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on August 22-26, 2022. The theme of the conference is ‘Our Soils Our Future’. https://web.facebook.com/esafs2022

Closing Date for Abstract Submission: 28^th April 2022 esafs2022@gmail.com

Highlights from the national soil science societies 2021/2022 (continuation from Alert 200)

The Finnish Society of Soil Sciences

The Finnish Society of Soil Sciences (FSSS) was established 1971 in Finland. From early on, the FSSS has participated actively in international networks, currently being affiliated to IUSS and ECSSS and involved in a national SoilHub of European Joint Programme project. The FSSS promotes global and national research in soil sciences, by organizing for example field excursions and public seminars. Every second year, a two-day scientific seminar is organized, gathering soil scientists with industry, NGO´s, policy makers and students. Bringing together experts from geology, soil physics and chemistry, plant ecology and molecular microbiology is highly appreciated in the Finnish scientific community. Last year our Society celebrated its 50th birthday, and the logo above is new and was published to highlight the birthday.

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