Dear colleagues: I invite you to consider submitting an abstract to Goldschmidt 2018 session 12d: "Interactions between soil and biota as controls on ecosystem function from canopy to rhizosphere" (https://goldschmidt.info/2018/program/programViewThemes)
This session will focus on the role soils play in terrestrial ecosystems. At their heart, soils foster intricate interactions between geochemical and biological processes with implications reaching from the molecular and micropore scales up to the ecosystem level. Geochemical heterogeneity is a hallmark of soils where structural variation, geochemical conditions, and biological influence shape the soil ecosystem over variable spatial and temporal scales. This session is focused on the dynamic connections between soil geochemistry and the plants and microorganisms soils host and will emphasize the resulting biota/soil interactions that drive ecosystem processes. Mechanistic spatiotemporal resolution spanning from the molecular to field scales is needed to foster fundamental understanding of these complex systems. Presented work will include both measurement and kinetic modeling approaches used to better understand biogeochemical cycling within soils and this session seeks to provide a forum for discussing new techniques, novel coupling of different techniques, or cutting edge approaches for field and lab-based explorations. Advances in spatially-resolved and imaging techniques, harnessing of a wide array of ‘omics’ capabilities, use of synthetic soils or soil replacements, advanced mass spectrometry approaches, use of stable isotope tracers, and other topics are strongly encouraged as are scientific studies that provide new insights to this vital, yet challenging to study, system.
