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 2020 Philippe Duchaufour Medal is awarded to Georg Guggenberger for outstanding research in the field of soil science, with special emphasis on conceptual work on the soil organic carbon evolution and interaction of organic matter with mineral structures.
The 2020 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Sebastian Dötterl for his contributions to the understanding of biogeochemical processes along geoclimatic gradients and the role of soil development and soil disturbance as controls on carbon dynamics.
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 Scientist Award 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) Award is awarded to Arjun Chakrawal How does soil spatial heterogeneity affect decomposition kinetics?
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award 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) Award 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) Award is awarded to Roisin O'Riordan The Soil-City Interface: Soil organic matter and ecosystem services
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award is awarded to Theodor Bughici Field Crop Irrigation–Multi-Objective Optimization and Sensitivity to Weather Forecast Accuracy
Early career scientist representatives are a crucial link between the EGU and the early career scientist community. They are vital in providing feedback from students and early career researchers so that we can take action to improve our early-career scientist’s activities at the EGU General Assembly and maintain our support for early-career scientists throughout the year. The ECS website brings together the opportunities the EGU offers for early career researchers – useful resources, job opportunities and information on how you …
Soil is a fragile and finite natural resource that must be carefully managed and protected to ensure future food and fiber provision as well as delivery of many other ecosystem services such as water purification or flood regulation [1]. Soil health and preservation at global scales has been receiving increasing attention, for example, in discussions at the 2019 UN climate conference, COP25 in Madrid. Backed by robust scientific evidence, COP25 sought support for new programs in which soil scientists are …
“They say there’s nothing more complex than the human brain. They haven’t worked in Brussels, have they?” Read all about EGU’s recent science-policy pairing scheme and sign up for EGU's database of expertise to receive emails about opportunities focussed on integrating science and policy.
This month we announced that EGU will contribute EUR 105,000 to help fund 17 training schools and conferences, including two Galileo Conferences, in 2020.
Fellowships: Tim Kalvelage, Cécile Dumas and Aisling Irwin are the recipients of this year's EGU Science Journalism Fellowships.
From a new audio accessibility system and more legible, browser-based programme to pronoun buttons and a diversity and pride reception, EGU is implementing extensive measures to foster an inclusive and respectful environment at the annual General Assembly. These include free, on-site childcare, for which the registration opens on 9 March at 13:00 CET and closes when filled - so be sure to sign up early.
The meeting programme for the EGU General Assembly 2020 (3–8 May, Vienna) will be published next week! With more than 1000 scientific sessions, debates, short courses and networking events scheduled, as well as two artists in residence - Lego photographer Stacy Phillips and digital artist Priyanka Das Rajkakati - it promises to be a diverse and exciting conference again this year. Please register by 31 March to qualify for the early registration rates.