European Geosciences Union
Division on Soil System Sciences
President: Claudio Zaccone (sss@egu.eu)
Deputy President: Bas van Wesemael
(bas.vanwesemael@uclouvain.be)
Soil is the interface between the crust and atmosphere, and is the basis of life on earth. The impact of Soil Science to the society has probably never been as high as it is currently. The importance of soils in the Earth System must make us, the soil scientists, more noticeable at the EGU.
The aim of the SSS is to coordinate the EGU scientific programme on Soil Science and related activities. The SSS contributes actively with EGU by promoting scientific interchange and dissemination of activity carried out by members.
The EGU has issued an open letter to funding agencies and evaluation committees with information on the assessment of presentations given at its scientific meetings.
The letter details the three presentation types given at EGU General Assembly and states that the selection of the type of presentation is not based on any evaluation of the scientific value of the contribution. This letter emphasises that there is no distinction regarding the standing, quality or prestige of oral, poster, or PICO presentations.
Lily Pereg, Deputy President and Programme Group Chair of the EGU Soil System Sciences (SSS) Division and Executive Editor of the SOIL journal, died tragically and unexpectedly earlier this month during a trip to Argentina.
Pereg was a microbiologist with 25 years of research experience and an associate professor at the School of Science and Technology, University of New England in Armidale, Australia. An EGU member since 2013, Pereg was elected to serve as president of the EGU SSS Division in Autumn 2017, a role she was due to take on in April this year.
Amazing soil pictures? Are you a photoartist? Share your work at Imaggeo, the open-access image repository of EGU.
Lorena M. Zavala (Univ. of Sevilla) holds a soil
aggregate composed of organic matter from a
peatland from the Wicklow Mountains (Ireland)
The 2019 Philippe Duchaufour Medal is awarded to Claire Chenu for outstanding research in the field of soil science, with special emphasis on pioneering conceptual work on the microbial-mineral interactions and organic matter dynamics in soil.
The 2019 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientists Awards is awarded to Bahar S. Razavi for outstanding contributions to the understanding of biogeochemical processes in terrestrial ecosystems, in particular the effects of abiotic factors on soil organic matter and nutrient cycling.
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Arjun Chakrawal How does soil spatial heterogeneity affect decomposition kinetics?
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Bruna Imai The role of Common Mycorrhizal Networks for nutrient allocation in Fagus sylvatica (European beech) trees
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Ringo Schwabe The effect of the application of cell cultures and supernatants of PGPR (Arthrobacter oxydans) as soil additives on the phytoextraction of germanium and rare earth elements
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Roisin O'Riordan The Soil-City Interface: Soil organic matter and ecosystem services
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Theodor Bughici Field Crop Irrigation–Multi-Objective Optimization and Sensitivity to Weather Forecast Accuracy
The 2018 Philippe Duchaufour Medal is awarded to Yakov A. Pachepsky for outstanding research in the field of soil hydraulic properties and the fate of pathogens in soils, which greatly influenced the development of soil science.
The 2018 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientists Awards is awarded to Matthias Vanmaercke for his outstanding research on understanding the rates and impacts of soil erosion and catchment sediment export at regional and continental scales.
The 2018 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Cosimo Brogi Geophysics-based subsurface conceptualization for improved prediction of plant productivity beyond field scale
The 2018 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Mathieu Le Breton Landslide displacement monitoring with passive RFID
The 2018 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Mutez A. Ahmed Where do maize roots take up water? The importance of different root type
The 2018 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Paola M. Mafla Endara Colonization of a pristine soil environment – Microbial migration into micro-engineered Soil Chips buried in field soils
The 2018 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Thomas Laemmel Effect of local airflow on flux chamber measurements
The EGU made several exciting announcements in October. Earlier this week we reported that beginning in 2020, the carbon dioxide emissions for the travel of all General Assembly participants will be offset. This represents a first for any major geoscience event and, along with a host of other greening initiatives, marks another important step towards minimising the meeting’s environmental impact.
Earlier this month EGU announced the winners of the 2020 awards and medals: 49 individuals who have made significant contributions to the Earth, planetary and space sciences and who will be honoured at the 2020 EGU General Assembly in May. We also announced the winners of the Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards from the 2019 General Assembly.
In October the EGU also hosted its second-annual science policy event in Brussels. The gathering brought together geoscientists and policymakers to provide feedback regarding the themes recently chosen for Horizon Europe, the EU’s next research and innovation framework programme.
The call for abstracts for our annual conference is now open. If you are interested in presenting your work in Vienna in May, please be sure to submit your abstract by 15 January 2020, 13:00 CET. If you would like to apply for Roland Schlich travel support to attend the meeting, please submit your abstract no later than 1 December 2019.
Only two weeks remain to provide input regarding EGU's activities, so please take five minutes to fill out the Membership Survey today!
In November, 2019 EGU members will have the opportunity to vote in the Union's autumn elections. Please check the elections page on our website for more information.