Programme

This theme explores how soil science connects to society, from health monitoring and adaptive management to the policies, economic incentives, and public engagement needed to scale solutions. It brings together research on soil literacy, citizen science, living labs, and soil-based economics, asking how scientific knowledge becomes lasting stewardship on the ground.

This theme dives into the mechanisms that drive soil functions: the physical, chemical, hydrological, and microbial processes that connect plants, microbes, nutrients, carbon, and water within the soil system. Sessions span from molecular interactions to ecosystem fluxes, advancing the fundamental models that underpin every other theme at the conference.

How do we know what is happening in soils at the scale of a field, a region, or a continent? This theme showcases the latest tools for spatial analysis, digital soil mapping, and remote sensing, including the growing role of artificial intelligence, that translate point-based soil science into the landscape-level evidence needed for land management and policy decisions.

Soils are quietly at the center of some of the biggest environmental challenges of our time: climate change, water security, and biodiversity loss. This theme highlights how soil science is shaping solutions, from regenerative agriculture and urban blue-green infrastructure to the often-overlooked engineering work of soil fauna.