IUSS Alert 205 (July 2022)

Download the IUSS Soilutions Calender (59MB)

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

IUSS has established an annual Stimulus Fund to support suitable activities within the Commissions and Working Groups. Where appropriate, the Fund will also support other activities to assist the development of Soil Science generally but particularly in regions of the world where lack of resources limit opportunities.

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

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

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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