Soil Mineral -- Microbe-Organic Interactions

Minerals, organic matter and microorganisms are the major solid components in soil systems. These three constituents do not function independently but rather interact with each other constantly at all times and everywhere in the soil ecosystem. The interactions profoundly affect a series of physical, chemical and biological processes of soils including the behavior, transformation and fate of various nutrients and pollutants. The research on these interactions should, thus, be an important issue for Soil and Environmental Scientists. Therefore, the International Society of Soil Science established the Working Group MO in 1990, which was promoted to a new Commission 2. 5 Soil Physical/Chemical/Biological Interfacial Interactions of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) in 2004. To date, the Working Group has sponsored four international symposia and these conferences were held in Edmonton (Canada, 1992), Nancy (France, 1996), Naples (Italy, 2000) and Wuhan (China, 2004), respectively. The 4th International Symposium on Interactions of Soil Minerals with Organic Components and Microorganisms (ISMOM2004) was the first Inter-Congress Symposium of IUSS Commission 2. 5. The conference was cosponsored by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). Doctors P. M. Huang (Canada), A. Violante (Italy), J. -M. Bollag (USA), J. Berthelin (France), J. Zhou (China) and Q. Huang (China) served in the Symposium Organizing Committee.

Fundamentals.- Soil Physical-Chemical-Biological Interfacial Interactions: An Overview.- Sorption and Desorption of Arsenic by Soil Minerals and Soils in the Presence of Nutrients and Organics.- Role of Bacteria and Bacteria-Soil Composites in Metal Biosorption and Remediating Toxic Metal-Contaminated Soil Systems.- Adsorption of Biopolymers, with Special Emphasis on Globular Proteins.- Relationship of Polarity and Structures of Organic Matter with Sorption Capacity for Hydrophobic Organic Compounds.- Organically Modified Clays for Pollutant Uptake and Environmental Protection.- Microbial Transformation of Organic Chemicals in Natural Environments: Fate of Chemicals and Substantiation of Microbial Involvement through Enrichment Culturing Techniques.- Applications.- Soil Organic Matter Quality and the Size and Activity of the Microbial Biomass: Their Significance to the Quality of Agricultural Soils.- Soil Carbon Dynamics in a Subtropical Mountainous Region, South China: Results Based on Carbon Isotopic Tracing.- Bioavailability of Soil-Sorbed Pesticides and Organic Contaminants.- Anticlastogenic and Antitoxic Actions Exerted by Humic Substances in Seedlings of Various Plants.- Soil Heavy Metal Pollution and Microbial Communities: Interactions and Response Assessment.- Changes in Antibiotic Resistance Profile of Soil Bacterial Community in Association with Land Degradation.