The European Commission invites you to participate to a two-day high-level conference on "Soil remediation and soil sealing" that it will host in Brussels on 10th and 11th May 2012. The draft programme is attached.
The conference, which will be opened by Janez Potočnik, Environment Commissioner, has the objective to highlight the importance of tackling soil contamination at an early stage and the opportunities that this offers to the European remediation industry. Moreover, it will underline how addressing contaminated sites and brownfields can be helpful in limiting land take and soil sealing, which continues in many parts of Europe at alarming rates, often at the expense of fertile agricultural lands. In this context, the Commission will present recently published Soil Sealing Guidelines (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/soil/sealing_guidelines.htm) that aim to spread best practice across Member States. The conference will be closed by a panel gathering key policy players from international and European institutions discussing "Land take, soil remediation and food production: the role of the EU's policies".
Interpretation will be provided in Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish. For further information and registration, please go to http://ec.europa.eu/environment/soil/conference_may2012.htm.
EcoFINDERS in Research Media
EcoFINDERS represented at EUROSoil2012
EcoFINDERS will chair symposium 11.2 on Soil Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services at the upcoming conference EUROSoil2012 in Bari, Italy, 2. – 6. July 2012 with the topic: Soil Science for the Benefit of Mankind and Environment.
More than 50 abstracts have been received for the symposium and 12 – 18 oral presentations are expected, including presentations on results of the EcoFINDERS project.
EcoFinders
Ecological Function and Biodiversity Indicators in European Soils
Seventh framework programme - Environment
Poster presenting the EcoFINDERS FP7 Project:
EcoFINDERS
Soil sampling at LTO at Bowberhead, Ravenstonedale, UK, June 2011
Soil sampling at LTO at Bowberhead, Ravenstonedale, UK
The landscape at Bowberhead, Ravenstonedale, UK
Pierre Plassart and Celine Farvre-Primot from INRA, Dijon, travelled to Lancaster in early June 2011 to visit Richard Bardgett to sample soils from the English LTO sites in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Pierre, Celine and Richard joined Helen Quirk and Sue Ward, also from Lancaster, to sample soils from one of the five sites of the English LTO at Bowberhead, Ravenstonedale. This is one of five sites which each include a gradient of management intensity from traditionally managed, species-rich meadows, to semi-improved meadows, and intensively managed grassland. At each site, we recorded vegetation composition and sampled soils from four sub-plots within each of the three levels of management intensity. Soils were shipped back to Lancaster and then to Dijon for molecular investigation.
Inserting the soil sampler through the vegetation into the soil
Removing the soil sample from the soil sampler
The happy soil sampling crew
Kick-Off Meeting at INRA, Dijon, France, February 2011
Participants gathered at the Kick-Off Meeting at INRA, Dijon, France, February 2011
Photo: Stefan Geisen
Work programme topics:
ENV. 2010.2.1.4.4 Increasing the understanding of the role of soil biodiversity in ecosystem functioning