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UID:pretalx-soil-health-now-2026-LSEJKZ@pretalx.earthmonitor.org
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Athens:20261209T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Athens:20261209T141500
DESCRIPTION:Soils are complex ecosystems intrinsically interwoven with the 
 surrounding environment. Local conditions such as topography\, geomorpholo
 gy\, drainage\, parent material\, and microclimate are well-established dr
 ivers of soil formation\, development\, and function. Contemporary climate
  change constitutes a major global threat to soil functionality\, although
  climatic variability has influenced pedogenesis throughout Earth history.
  Over millennia\, and increasingly since the advent of mechanized agricult
 ure and the widespread use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides\, agric
 ultural intensification has become a dominant force shaping soil ecosystem
  processes. These transformations have degraded ecosystem integrity and fu
 nctioning in many regions\; within the European Union\, an estimated 60–
 70% of soils are considered to be in poor health.\nThis article argues tha
 t understanding soil function and defining soil health must begin from two
  complementary perspectives: first\, recognizing the hierarchical organiza
 tion of patterns and processes operating both within soils and in relation
  to the broader environment\; and second\, applying a thermodynamic framew
 ork. The spatial scales relevant for soil ecosystem analysis span more tha
 n 50 orders of magnitude\, from elementary particles to the observable uni
 verse\, while temporal scales range from instantaneous radiation–matter 
 interactions to the persistence of Precambrian paleosols. Across these spa
 tial and temporal dimensions\, soils have evolved through Darwinian select
 ion favoring thermodynamically efficient dissipative systems capable of bu
 ilding internal organization while converting\, regulating\, and redirecti
 ng external energy and matter flows into negentropy. To improve the unders
 tanding\, management\, and optimization of soil health and ecosystem servi
 ces\, this article presents a conceptual framework linking soil functions 
 to the spatial and temporal scales at which soils operate\, together with 
 the observational approaches required to assess relevant indicators across
  these scales.
DTSTAMP:20260825T180142Z
LOCATION:Amphitheater II
SUMMARY:Understanding soil health from hierarchical and thermodynamic persp
 ectives - Thomas Gumbricht
URL:https://pretalx.earthmonitor.org/soil-health-now-2026/talk/LSEJKZ/
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