On behalf of Professor Giuseppe Corti (CREA), we invite you to submit an abstract to the session “Life, Agriculture, and Productive System in Soils from Arctic, Antarctic, and other Cold Regions” at the Centennial Celebration and Congress of the
International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS). The meeting will be held 19-21 May 2024 in Florence, Italy.
Submission deadline: 15 January 2024
Lead convener:
G. Corti – CREA – Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Centre of Agriculture and Environment, Firenze, Italy
Co-conveners:
S. Imhoff – ICiAgro Litoral -CONICET-UNL, Esperanza, Argentina
K. Vancampenhout – KU Leuven Association, Leuven, Belgium
Session description:
Soils from cold regions are peculiar because of their physical properties induced by the harsh climatic conditions to which they are submitted. Soil properties like gelic or cryic soil temperature represent a challenge for human settlements, agriculture, and any other material-gathering or subsistence system. In fact, processes such as cryoturbation and waterlogging are frequent in these soils because of the presence of a permafrost at a shallow depth.
In some case, these environments are protected as natural parks because of the presence of unique vegetation, fauna and habitats. Nonetheless, virtuous examples of cohabitation (with the meaning ‘the state or fact of living or existing at the same time or in the same place’) and respectful use of the environment and the soil exist in many places, even remote or at a small scale, of the World.
In other cases, these environments present so peculiar characteristics that it took scientists more than 70 years to decide if they could effectively be considered ‘soils’. These discussions led to the creation of a new soil order in the various classifications and to refining the definition of ‘soil’. Currently, as temperatures rise and glaciers retreat, more land is being exposed allowing incipient development of plant life. Undoubtedly, what these changes imply for the global carbon cycle represents a contemporary enigma and a new challenge for scientists who must clarify the role of these type of soils in the life of the planet.
With this session we want to recollect scientists who worked on the human difficulties to adapt to cold environments and hostile soils, being these affected or not by permafrost.
Keywords:
1. agriculture in polar soils
2. mountain soils
3. permafrost
4. active layer
5. gelic & frigid soil regimes
